Damage Control
by TaliaThompson
Summary: Things around Clay are falling apart and Sonny is there to pick him up. When Sonny becomes trapped in the torpedo tube of a submarine,Clay can't just stand by, waiting for him to die. A prompt that was sent to me by one of my awesome readers of a possible alternate ending for "Time to Shine."
1. Chapter 1

Clay had just fallen asleep not too long ago, or so he thought, when a loud pounding on his door woke him up. He rolled his eyes as he sat himself up and looked over at the clock, surprised when it read 9:23 am. He thought for sure he had just fallen asleep so was extra surprised to see he had actually slept about 9 hours.

Somewhat relieved he had finally gotten a 'good night sleep,' something that hasn't happened much since Stella left, he stood up, threw on a shirt and walked to the door.

He looked through his little peephole and wasn't surprised to see Sonny on the other side of the door. The man had been there every step of the way, doing whatever he could to help get Clay through his break up.

Clay was grateful for Sonny. The friendship the two men shared was undeniable, even the rest of the team noticed it. It was a friendship Clay thought he would never find again after Brian died, but here it was.

"Good morning sunshine!" Sonny smiled as Clay opened the front door.

"Hey. Everything ok?" Clay asked. As far as he could remember, they hadn't made any plans to hangout that day.

"Yeah, peachy. I was just headed out to the diner down the street, figured I'd see if you wanted to join?" Sonny asked.

Clay looked around his apartment. It was slightly messy, he had planned to clean it once he woke up, but it could wait. "Uh… Yeah sure, let me just get dressed real quick."

Sonny walked in and sat on the couch. He sat there for a couple minutes, looking around the messy apartment. "When you gonna clean this place? It's a freaking mess!" He joked, kinda.

"I planned on doing it this morning till your sorry ass showed up. I'll do it when I get home. Ready?" Clay said as he walked out of his room.

Sonny was about to reply when Clay's phone started ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and hit the decline button when he didn't recognize the number.

"Not gonna answer it?" Sonny asked.

"Don't know the number. Whoever it is will leave a message if it's important." Clay slid the phone back into his pocket. "Let's go, I'm starving."

As they were sitting at the diner, shooting the shit, Clay's phone rang again. It was the same number. He was about to ignore it until Sonny stopped him.

"Just answer it. If it's nobody important than just hang up and block the number." Sonny insisted. His own curiosity was getting the better of him.

Clay complied. "Hello?" He answered.

"Hey son." He heard on the other end of the phone, causing him to lose all concepts of words.

He remained silent as he tried to figure out, once again how to speak. "Uh hey Ash."

Sonny instantly looked at him as soon as the word 'Ash' came out of his mouth. This was bad. This was real bad. Sonny immediately regretted telling Clay to answer the phone. Clay was finally starting to snap out of his funk from Stella, he didn't need Ash coming around destroying all the hard work he put in to accomplish that.

"Um Yeah. I guess so." Sonny heard Clay saying. He had a bad feeling in stomach. He didn't know what they were talking about, but he fully planned on finding out.

"Alright. Sounds good. See ya." Clay said as he hung up the phone and looked over to find Sonny staring with his 'what the hell was that about look.'

"That was your dad?" Sonny asked.

"Yep. Apparently he's in town. Wants to meet for a beer later." Clay knew Sonny wasn't gonna be happy about that. Clay didn't even know if HE was happy about that.

"And you agreed?" Sonny didn't like this at all.

Clay nodded. "It's only one beer, how bad can that be?"

Sonny could think of 100 different ways it could go wrong. He had never met Ash, never planned on it either, but he has heard quite a bit about him. "I'm going with you." He stated.

"What? No. You're not coming." Clay stated. The last thing he needed was Sonny and Ash going at it.

"I'm going. I'll get there early and sit at the opposite end of the bar, but I will be there." Sonny was adamant about it. He had a bad feeling this, but hoped to God he was wrong.

"Fine, but absolutely under no circumstances, are you to approach us, understand?" Clay really didn't want Sonny there, but he knew there was no way to talk Sonny out of it.

Sonny agreed and as he did so, both of their phones rang informing them of a mission. "Maybe you ain't getting that beer after all?" Sonny joked.

Clay just laughed as they got in his car and drove to the base. In all honesty, he wouldn't be heartbroken if he had to cancel on his dad.

/

Sonny and Clay were the last two to arrive and promptly took their seats in the briefing room.

Mandy had informed them that half of them would be going on a top secret mission in North Korea.

The fact that only half of them were going didn't sit right with Jason. "Why only half?"

Davis pulled up a picture of a submarine and informed them of the reason. "This is why. Say hello to your new home for the next two weeks. You're going to be entering on a submarine. As you know, they're not really known for their space. As a result, there is only room for 4 of you."

"Weeks? Why weeks?" Clay asked.

Davis informed them that because of the pickup location, it would take them almost two days to fly out to a ship where the sub would pick them up. From there it would take another couple of days to reach their desired location within North Korean waters, approximately 2-3 days to complete the mission and gather intel and then another few days to reach their exfil location.

"Well I'll gladly sit this one out. Have fun guys." Sonny laughed. Being in a giant tube underwater wasn't exactly his idea of a good time.

"Actually, you're going. Along with Jason, Ray and Clay." Blackburn stated.

Sonny threw his head back and rolled his eyes. Of course he has to go. "Wonderful." He replied sarcastically, resulting in jabs and jokes from everyone about all his phobias.

"When do we leave?" Jason asked.

"26 hours." Blackburn replied.

26 hours. Sonny looked right at Clay, knowing exactly where his head was. 26 hours meant Clay was still having that beer with his father.

Clay was a bit disappointed that they weren't leaving until tomorrow. He was actually kind of relieved when the mission came about, but since he had 26 hours before he had to leave, that meant he still had time to see his dad.

As soon as they were dismissed from the briefing room, Sonny and Clay headed towards his car.

"You know you don't have to go tonight. I'm sure he'll understand if you tell him we're heading out tomorrow." Sonny tried his best to talk Clay out of his plans.

"You don't him, man. If I cancel, he'll just show up at my door. You know, kinda like you did this morning." Clay joked. "I'd rather just get it over with and be done with him for a few months."

"You love when I just show up." Sonny smirked as he tried defending himself. "What times your date with Ash? I'll make sure I get there a good half hour early.

"6:30. But I'm serious Sonny. Stay away. I don't need any more drama from him." Clay said.

Sonny threw his hand up in surrender. "You'll barely even know I'm there." He said as he got into the passenger side of Clay's car.

/

Clay walked into the bar and scanned the taken seats, first spotting Sonny on one side of the bar, then laying eyes on his father.

He slowly walked over to where Ash was sitting and ordered a beer.

"Hey son. You look good. How have you been?" Ash said with a smile on his face.

"Still breathing, so I'd say pretty well." Clay replied.

"Good. I'm glad to hear. So listen, I'm just gonna cut to the chase. My new books about finished. We think it's gonna be bigger than the first one. I was kinda hoping you would maybe read the manuscript. You've always been good with words."

Clay was a bit reluctant but to keep the peace he reluctantly agreed. He really didn't want anything to do with his father's book, but if it would keep them from fighting before a spin up, he would agree to it.

Ash's phone rang and he informed Clay he would be right back, he just had to take the call from his publisher.

Clay nodded and looked at the TV. He had pretty much forgotten Sonny was even there. As he looked at the screen, he noticed an interview his father had done. "Hey, can you turn this up?" Clay yelled over to the bartender, who then handed the remote to Clay.

Sonny was now laser focused in on Clay. Watching him as they both listened to Ash's interview.

Clay turned up the volume just in time to hear part of his father interview. _"My next book focuses a great deal on the missions the teams go on. Missions no one even knows are SEAL missions. For example, just a couple months ago Shia extremists threaten to poison the water supply in Saudi Arabia and it was the SEAL's who solved that problem."_

"_How do you know?" _The reporter asked.

"_I have a firsthand account from a SEAL that was there…" _There it was. The real reason his father wanted to 'spend time with him.' Clay had heard enough. He turned the TV off, sat back in his seat and glared over at his father.

Clay put his beer down and headed straight for the parking lot. At this point he had completely forgotten Sonny was there. All he knew was that he never wanted anything to do with his father ever again.

As he walked to his car, he felt his frustrations and disappointments boiling over. He should have known his father had an ulterior motive.

He was winding up to punch a tree that was standing in front of his car when he felt a hand grasp his wrist. He turned around to see Sonny standing behind him.

"Now that would leave a mark. Probably not such a good idea before a spin up." Sonny remarked.

Clay freed his arm from Sonny's grasp and shook his head. "I should have known. The second he said he wanted to just 'spend time' with me, I should have known!'

"Hey. Look at me Clay. You don't need him. We all know you didn't tell him about Saudi Arabia. Don't let him get under your skin. We all know he's a shitty dad." Sonny felt bad. Part of him felt responsible. If he would have just minded his own business and didn't have Clay answer the phone, this could have possibly all been avoided. "Come on. There's another bar right down the street. Let's go talk about it over a drink."

Sonny threw his arm around over Clay's shoulder as they headed towards the other bar. Only a few steps from Clay's car and both their hearts dropped.

"Clay! Hey! Wait up!" Ash yelled as he jogged towards the two men.

Clay and Sonny turned around to see Ash running towards them.

"Where you going? You just got here." Ash asked. He had no idea his interview played at the bar while he was on the phone.

"Really? You just invited me here to use me Ash! I saw the interview, you know, about your' firsthand account." Clay yelled out.

Before Ash could even reply, Sonny's fist met Ash's face, taking both Clay and Ash by surprise.

Clay looked over at Sonny, who was shaking his hand out, with a surprised smile on his face. It wasn't the reaction Sonny expected from him, but was glad to see it. Ash on the other hand, wasn't too happy about it.

"You're just gonna let him hit me?" Ash asked, determined to have his son take his side.

"I mean, you kinda deserved it. I'm just sorry I didn't get to do it first." Clay shrugged his shoulder. "I'm done with this Ash. I'm done with you. Find someone else to read your manuscript."

Sonny smiled back at Clay as he finally cut the cord from his father. Ash walked away annoyed and sore. Sonny and Clay continued their walk to the bar, joking the whole way there, as well as the entire time they were there.

Sonny was glad the punch seemed to help lift Clay's spirits. The last thing he needed was the kid going on a super dangerous, top secret mission, with a distracted mind.

They only had two beers each at the bar. Neither one of them wanted to show up the next morning hungover.

As they were approaching their cars in the parking lot, Clay stopped to thank Sonny. "Hey man. Thanks for tonight. Believe it or not, I'm actually relieved to be done with Ash. I should have done it a long time ago."

"Don't go get all soft on me now goldilocks. It was partly my fault you ended up in that situation anyway. I was just righting my wrong." Sonny said.

"Well regardless. Thanks. For everything. Now go get some sleep. We got a big ole' tube waiting for us to grace it with our presence tomorrow deep in the ocean." Clay winked. He couldn't resist the jab.

"Ugh, you just had to go there didn't you? Don't remind me, please." Sonny rolled his eyes with a slight smirk. "I'll see you tomorrow."

They both entered their vehicles and headed home. Tomorrow was gonna come quicker than any of them wanted and they both knew it was going to be a long few weeks.

**Hey guys. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. One of my readers messaged me a few days ago with this idea and it was too good to pass up. I really wanted to show the relationship between Clay and Sonny before I started the next few chapters. Anyway, I'm really excited about the ideas for this story so hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. **


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning rolled around quicker than any of them would have liked. They have all been in some of the most dangerous parts of the world, but for some reason, there was something about entering North Korea that had them all on edge.

As hour 26 approached, they all made their way to base, basically arriving at the same time.

They all noticed the cut up and slightly bruised knuckles on Sonny's right hand, peaking all of their curiosity, well, all except Clay.

"That upset about going on a sub?" Jason joked, figuring Sonny punched a wall or something about having to face most of his growing list of phobias.

Sonny looked up and laughed, flexing his hand open and closed. "Actually, it had nothing to do with the mission." He smirked. He knew Jason was either gonna be pissed or slightly jealous that he had a crack at Ash before him.

"Oh, well then please enlighten us… Is it gonna effect the mission?" Jason knew by the smirk on Sonny's face that something had definitely happened.

"Young buck over there went out for a few drinks last nights..." he said nodding towards Clay's direction. Jason turned to face his youngest member, eyeing him up and down, looking for any signs of a fight on him. Not seeing anything, he looked back over at Sonny, silently telling him to continue. "… with his dear ole Dad."

Jason closed his eyes in disbelief. He knew exactly where Sonny was going with this now. "And you walked in on them and couldn't hold back could you?"

"Actually, I was already there, at the other end of the bar. Things went south. Spencer walked out on Ash, I followed. We were gonna head to another bar to talk about it when the asshole came running out behind us wondering where Clay was going." Sonny didn't want to tell Jason everything. Felt like it wasn't his place. When Spenser was ready, he would tell him himself. "He had it coming Jas." Sonny finally admitted.

"Spenser?" Jason looked over at Clay, looking for some sort of clarification.

Clay just shrugged his shoulder. "I'm just sorry I didn't punch him first." Clay smirked.

"This conversation, it isn't over. We'll talk about it more on the plane. Right now, we need to get inside before we get our asses chewed out for being late."

Sonny and Clay both nodded as they all made their way in to the briefing room.

/

As they boarded the plane and settled in, Sonny made sure to get a spot next to Clay. Yeah, the kid had said he was fine, but Sonny still wanted to keep a close eye on him. The poor kid had been through so much in the last few months between Stella, Adam and now cutting off his father. Sonny wasn't sure how much more Clay could take before he completely cracked.

It didn't go unnoticed by either Jason or Ray, how close of an eye Sonny was keeping on Clay.

"He sure is keeping a close eye on Spenser, ain't he?" Ray said to Jason as they hung their hammocks up on the opposite side of Sonny and Clay.

"Something went down last night. I know we all hate Ash, but Sonny's smarter than that. He would never just hit someone for nothing. No matter how bad he wanted to." Jason remarked back. "Once we get in the air and everyone's a bit more relaxed, I'll go over and talk to them, find out what really happened."

Ray nodded, satisfied with Jason's answer.

On the other side of the plane, Clay and Sonny were having a conversation of their own.

"How's the hand?" Clay asked him.

"Feels great!" Sonny smirked.

Clay just gave him the look and Sonny finally admitted that it was a little sore. Nothing serious though. He had broken enough bones in his lifetime to know whether or not something was broken.

"I still can't believe you hit him." Clay was all smiles, which both made Sonny feel better and a little more concerned. The kid was real good at hiding his emotions at times and Sonny couldn't tell if the smile was genuine, or if it was just one big cover up.

"He had it coming." Sonny said. "How you holding up?"

Clay shrugged his shoulders and after a short pause said "Actually kinda relieved. It feels good to finally be out from under his thumb. He was never there for me, never would be. I don't know why I kept trying."

The short pause that came before Clay spoke told Sonny all he needed to know. Clay was hurt. "Well you know, if you ever need to talk about it, big brother Sonny is always here."

Clay laughed at Sonny's comment and thought back to their conversation from the night before. "Who's the one getting all soft now?"

About a few hours after takeoff, Jason decided it was time to get some answers. He stood up, and Ray watched him slowly make his way over to Sonny and Clay's side of the plane. He sat down on a box between their feet and after a couple of minutes of small talk to see if either one of them would open up, decided he was just going to have to dive right in. "So last night… what happened?"

Sonny looked over at Clay and waited for him to answer. Clay looked over at Sonny, hoping he would be the one to tell Jason, but once he realized Sonny wasn't talking, he finally spilled the beans.

"My dad invited me out last night for a few bears." He started.

"And you went, even knowing you were leaving for a mission in the morning?" Jason wasn't a big fan that that happened.

"It was planned before we even got the mission. I was actually relieved when we got the call yesterday, thinking I would have a good excuse to cancel, then we were told we weren't leaving for 26 hours. I still thought about canceling but then I figured 'why not just go and get it over with?' I was only going to stay for one beer, two beers max."

"How'd he end up there?" Jason pointed to Sonny.

"He was with me when Ash called. When I told him my plans he insisted on being there, but I told him he had to stay at the opposite end of the bar and under no circumstances was he to approach Ash."

"That worked out real well huh?" Jason interrupted again.

"With all due respect boss, would you let the kid finish?" Sonny finally stepped in. Jason apologized and told Clay to continue.

"Anyway, things were going ok. He told me he was writing a second book and wanted me to read the manuscript. I honestly want nothing to do with it, but I told him I would to keep us from fighting. About 5 minutes later he got a phone call from his publisher that he had to take. He stood up and walked to the back of the bar where it was quieter. After watching him for a minute, I realized it was going to be one of those longer phone calls so I started looking around, noticed an interview that Ash had recently done was airing on one of the TV's." It was at this point that Clay became silent.

"What was the interview about?" Jason asked.

Clay looked away from Jason and Sonny, trying to keep himself composed. He had worked hard to convince Sonny he was fine, or at least he thought he had him convinced, and falling apart now would ruin all that hard work.

Sonny noticed and decided to step in. "He was talking about the damn new book. How this one was all about the missions. Started talking about that damn mission we went on in Saudi Arabia, how he had a firsthand account from someone that was there."

"Did you tell him about it?" Jason asked.

Clay shook his head. "Nope. He had asked me about it earlier, said he knew it was us that were sent it, but I never confirmed nor denied it. He's still got connections. I'm sure he asked someone higher up if it was Bravo and when they said yes, figured he would just use me to try to get information."

"He's a piece of shit Jason." Sonny added.

Jason nodded. They all knew Ash was a piece of shit. "That still doesn't tell me how your fist landed on Ash's face." Jason said looking over at Sonny.

"We're getting there." Sonny said.

"After hearing the interview, the last thing I wanted to see was the man that supposedly just wanted to spend time with me. He was just using me for his own personal gain. I left. Walked right out the front door without saying a word to him. Sonny caught up to me right before I reached my car. I forgot he was even there. I'm glad he was. He probably saved me from doing something stupid. I was so pissed off. I wanted to hit everything in sight. After a couple minutes, Sonny finally calmed me down. We were just about to walk to another bar down the street when Ash came running out wanting to know where I was going."

"And that's when it happened?" Jason asked.

"That's when it happened." Both Sonny and Clay said in unison.

Jason nodded then looked over at Sonny. "Anything broken?"

"Nope, just a little sore. I assure you, it definitely won't affect how I do my job." Sonny swore.

"And you? How you holding up?" Jason said after looking at Clay.

"Never better." Clay smiled.

Neither Sonny nor Jason believed him, but decided to drop the subject for now. Jason just looked over at Sonny and without words, told him to continue keeping an eye on Clay. Sonny just nodded, reading Jason's face perfectly.

"Alright then. We only have a few hours left until we land on the both. I suggest you both get some rest, we're all gonna need it." Jason stated as he stood up and made his way back over to his hammock and updating Ray on the conversation.

A few hours later, they landed on the giant ship in the middle of the ocean. They only had about two hours before the submarine they were going to board arrived. None of them bothered becoming familiar with the ship or those who were on it. Instead, they mostly stayed to themselves, informed Blackburn they had landed, and ate their lunch. The only time they spoke to those on board was when someone would approach them regarding something related to the mission.

Two hours later, they were informed the submarine had arrived and that it was time for them to board it.

Jason, Ray and Clay couldn't help but mess with Sonny.

"Hey Sonny, your chariot awaits"

"Oh don't worry, the sharks won't be able to get you. They're probably just afraid of the big ole tube as you are."

"What's the worst thing that could happen? It's not like we're going to be stuck in a giant tube deep in the ocean."

"You guys done? Cause if not, I ain't getting in that thing." Sonny joked. He knew it was all in good fun, but it definitely wasn't helping.

"Yeah, yeah. We're done… for now at least." Jason laughed.

Sonny smiled back but rolled his eyes. Oh he was never gonna hear the end of it.

Once the four men were all inside the sub, the top hatch that they entered in, closed and sealed shut. A few of the men inside introduced themselves and gave them a tour of their temporary home.

It was smaller than they had expected it to be. They could immediately see why only four of them were sent. They all felt a bit claustrophobic, which none of them were, except for Sonny. Made them wonder how Sonny really felt.

Feeling it themselves, they decided to lay off the jokes for now. Their 'tour guides' showed them the room they would be staying in and told them to settle in and make themselves at home. Once they were all settled, they would meet up in the sub's version of a briefing room and receive further details regarding the mission. For now though, they just wanted to get settled in and adjust to their new, tight surroundings.

**Hey guys! First of all, thank you to everyone who has liked/favorited and reviewed. They all mean a lot. I'm definitely going to try to post and update more to try to help us all get through this loonnnnngggggg hiatus. **


	3. Chapter 3

It took two long days for them to slowly and quietly enter into North Korean waters. As soon as they did, everyone felt the atmosphere change. Things had become more tense and serious.

The claustrophobia had disappeared after a few hours. Even Sonny started to ease up a bit. That didn't stop the rest of the team from cracking jokes to try to lighten everyone's moods though. Sonny didn't mind too much though. He knew there would come a time when he would be the one cracking jokes about something they didn't like. It's just what they do to each other.

On the third day, they finally became close enough to sure for them to make the swim to shore.

"Whatcha more scared of Sonny? Sharks or getting caught by one of them North Korean soldiers?" Clay joked as they were putting on their wetsuits.

Sonny looked at him but didn't say a word. He was not looking forward to this at all.

"Don't worry Clay, he's got his fancy shark bracelet on. Ain't no shark messing with him today." Ray joked back causing them all to laugh and Sonny to fake laugh right back.

"You laugh now, but I'll be the one laughing when one of them sharks swims right by me to get to one of ya'll." Sonny quipped back at them, still fake laughing.

"Aw Sonny, you mean to tell me if one of us got eaten by a shark you would laugh?" Jason said, calling out Sonny's bluff.

"Hell yeah I would…" Sonny paused for a second "…Ok, maybe I wouldn't, but you get what I'm saying."

"Yeah, we got your point Sonny." Clay said after patting Sonny on the back.

Blackburn entered the room right before they were about to exit the sub and begin their swim to shore and gave them one final briefing. At the end of his mini 'lecture he reminded them "remember, we're technically not here. DO. NOT. GET. CAUGHT. If you do, you're on your own. No one's going to be able to come save you. Understood?"

They all nodded their heads. "Way to dampen the mood." Ray smiled back, trying to release some of the tension in the air as a result of Blackburn's little speech.

The swim to shore felt a little further than they were expecting it to be. They breached the water in a small rock like formation. It was far from a cave, but would provide just enough cover for them to exit the water without being seen.

The water was mostly calm that day, with only a few occasional waves.. Sonny was the first one to pull himself out of the water. He didn't want to be in there any longer than he had to be. Jason was the next one out, accepting a helping hand from Sonny to pull him up on the rock. Jason had grabbed Rays hand and started pulling him up and Sonny was just about to grab Clay's hand when a small, rogue wave hit, slamming Clay into one of the rocks. The impact was just hard enough to cause a grunt to escape from his mouth.

Sonny ran over to check on him while Ray and Jason kept their guns aimed above their heads, not knowing if one of the North Korean soldiers heard Clay's grunt.

Clay quickly stood himself up while Sonny checked him over. His left side was a little sore, but nothing bad. He figured the worst he would get would be a bruise or two. It wasn't until Sonny grabbed his arm that he realized he scraped up the whole side of his left forearm.

Clay went to say something but Jason immediately held his hand up to stop him and pointed up. A North Korean soldier was standing directly above them. Keeping their guns aimed on him, Jason kept his hand up. They had only seen one man, but he knew others had to be somewhat close.

Luckily for them, the man only stayed there for about a minute and a half, finishing his cigarette. Once he was finished, he threw into the ocean and started walking along the edge of the cliff he was standing on.

Once the coast was clear, Jason made his way next to Spenser. "How bad is it?" He whispered.

"Just a scrape, I'll live." Clay whispered back.

"Quite a scrape there pretty boy. It's bleeding pretty good." Sonny added.

"I'm fine. Let's just get what we came here to get, and get back on that sub." His arm was burning from the giant scrape. The salt water dripping into it definitely wasn't helping any, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. His side and chest was also growing a bit sorer from being thrown into the rocks.

The fact that they would be able to complete their mission from this location felt like a godsend. Clay didn't want to move more than he had to. He'd much rather save his energy for the swim back to the sub.

It took about 25 minutes for them to gather the information they needed. Once completed, it was time to make the swim back.

Before entering the water, Jason radioed in to Blackburn to inform him of Clay's minor injuries so that someone from medical would be ready to clean his arm up.

"Hey Spenser, make sure you stay nice and close to Sonny. You're gonna need that bracelet with all that blood." Jason smiled, only half joking. None of them truly believed Sonny's bracelet worked, but right now, they wanted to believe it did.

"Look here pretty boy. I will give you the bracelet as long as you keep your distance from me." Sonny said, also half joking, as he pretended to take the bracelet off.

"We'll be fine. Just swim fast." Ray said as he slipped into the water.

Sonny was the next one to make his way into the ocean, followed by Clay. Jason noticed the wince he made as the salt water made contact with his injured arm. Before Clay submerged himself under water, Jason informed him he would be the first one on the sub and that medical would be there waiting for him.

Clay rolled his eyes and descended into the water, joining Sonny and Ray and waiting for Jason.

It was not a fun swim for Clay. He started slowing down a little more than halfway through their swim. His arm burned and his side and chest was aching more and more with every stroke he took. He felt as if he was laying on the bottom of the ocean

The rest of the team dropped back to assist him. The water was dark so it was hard to see exactly how much he was struggling, but they were going to do whatever it took to get him back to that sub, even if it meant pulling him the rest of the way.

Spenser felt completely drained by the time they reached the sub. He had long forgotten about the pain in his arm and was now just focusing on each breath.

All three of them pushed him into the narrow torpedo tube and shit the door.

Once the tube depressurized and was open from the inside, Clay was pulled out by Blackburn and Petty Officer Takahashi and immediately everyone in the room was shocked by his condition. Jason informed them the kid was fine, just had a badly scraped up arm. What they were looking at was not fine. Clay was having difficulty breathing and looked like he just finished running a full blown triathlon. Given he did just swim quite a distance, this is not what they were expecting to pull out of the tube.

"Clay talk to me. What's going on?" Blackburn asked, as the others started getting his gear off.

"I cant… breathe.. chest." Clay huffed, tapping on his chest.

"You're chest hurts?" Blackburn asked.

Clay didn't answer, just nodded his head.

"Alright. We need to get him to the wardroom." One of guys said.

Because they were on a submarine, there weren't any official medics on board. A majority of the men who were deployed on the sub, however, did have medical backgrounds.

Jason made his way out of the tube, just as they were taking Clay out of the room.

"What the hell happened!? I thought he just had a scraped arm?" Blackburn was immediately all over Jason for answers.

"That's what we all thought. He was perfectly fine until halfway through the swim, then he just gassed out! Where is he? How's he doing?" Jason went from defending himself to immediately concerned.

"I don't know. They took him to the wardroom. We pulled him out of the tube and he could barely catch his breath. Said his chest hurt." Blackburn updated Jason.

"Dammit." Jason cursed, feeling like he missed something he should have caught. "Alright, I'm gonna go check on him. Can you help Ray and Sonny out?" Jason asked Blackburn.

"Sure thing." Blackburn replied and with that, Jason disappeared from the room in search of Clay.

It took him a couple minutes to get to Clay. They had an oxygen mask on him and were cleaning up his arm. His breathing was still a little labored, but he was no longer struggling to breathe like Blackburn had described.

Clay looked over and smiled as soon as he noticed Jason was in the room. He went to raise his right hand to remove the mask but Jason stopped him. "Leave it on. It's helping." He said to Clay, then looked at one of the men helping him. "How is he?"

"We can't say for sure, but our best guess… possibly bruised lung. He has a slight bruise forming on his left side and chest, as you can see, but we felt around and it doesn't feel like anything's broken. The swim, occupied by the pressure of the water didn't help. As soon as we got him in here and on oxygen, his breathing calmed down. We did give him some pain medication that'll make him a little out of it, but shouldn't knock him out. He's still experiencing discomfort, and probably will until he gets off this sub and into a real hospital." The man informed Jason.

"A hospital? It's that serious?" Jason's concern doubled.

"If it is a bruised lung, yeah, it could be that serious. We're a sub. We don't typically carry medical equipment. We have no way to tell if that is really the problem or not, or if it's something worse that we can't see yet. Bruised lungs can be pretty serious if they're bruised enough. He is responding well to the oxygen we put him on though so that's a good sign. We will keep him in here, on oxygen if need be, until we can get him on the ship, where they have more medical equipment."

Ray walked in and heard the last sentence the man told Jason. "He needed oxygen? What the hell happened?"

We're thinking a bruised lung. Won't know for sure until we get him off the sub. How'd you get out before Sonny anyway?" Jason asked.

"Luck of the draw brother. Guess who pulled the short stick?" Ray chuckled. "They should have him out any min-" Rays sentence was cut short by a sudden rocking and flickering lights.

"The hell was that?" Jason asked looking at the men who were more familiar with the sub.

The men all looked around at each other until one finally spoke up. "I don't know. Never experienced it before."

"Alright. Ray, stay here with Clay. I'm gonna go check on Sonny and find out what's going on.

As Jason entered the room with the torpedo tubes, he noticed two men pulling on the latch to the tube where Sonny would have been. "What the hell is going on Blackburn? Where's Sonny?"

Blackburn looked over at Jason with a horrified look. "Power surge somehow shorted. The latch won't open. He's still in there Jason."

**Thank you guys again for all the positive reviews. They mean a lot. I'm trying my best to update as quickly as possible to help us all out during this hiatus, but the next chapter probably won't come till Sunday or possibly even Monday. Rest assured though, it is coming! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Surprise! My last appointment at work rescheduled so I got home earlier than I was supposed to which meant… time to write! **

Jason looked at Blackburn absolutely dumfounded. "He what!? Please tell me you're kidding?" He simply could not accept the fact that Blackburn wasn't lying.

"I'm sorry Jason, I wish I was." Blackburn replied.

Jason held a hand up to his face and shook his head. "This whole god damn mission is a fucking nightmare! How long till we can get him out?"

"Not sure yet. I'm on my way to go speak with the captain now to figure that out." Master Chief Wilke said.

"Mind if I come? That's one of my men in there." Blackburn asked.

"I don't mind, but we are working on the problem and getting this sub up and running takes priority over one sailor's discomfort."

"Understood. Jason stay here, keep him company." Blackburn ordered to Jason

"Ray's with Spenser. I'm not going anywhere." Jason informed Eric right before he left the room.

"Uh. Hey guys… you plan on letting me out anytime soon?" Sonny radioed in to Jason.

"Hey Sonny, got some bad news for ya… you're stuck." Jason radioed back.

"Haha. Real funny. Now let me out." Jason could now hear the annoyance in Sonny's voice.

"Sorry Sonny, but it's no joke. Locking mechanism locked.Just sit tight. We're working on it."

"Ha. Tights about all I can do in here." Sonny joked, although nothing about this situation was funny to him.

After a couple minutes of silence Sonny radioed back in to Jason. "Hey Jas? You still there?"

"Yeah Sonny. I'm not going anywhere." Jason said.

"How's Spenser?" All this time alone in the tube, gave his mind time to run wild and all he could think of was how bad Clay was struggling during the tube. Ig he was being honest with himself, worrying about Clay helped keep his mind off of where he was.

Jason knew the question was coming, he just wished it didn't come soon. The last thing he wanted was to give Sonny something else to worry about. "He's holding up. Ray's with him now."

"Don't sugar coat it boss. How bad?" Sonny could tell by Jason's tone that there was something he wasn't telling him.

Realizing Sonny wasn't going to drop the subject until he had answers, Jason decided to give him a simplified answer. "We don't know. Won't know till we get off this sub. They have him on oxygen and some pain killers.

"Does he know I'm stuck in here?" Sonny asked.

"No. They have him on the good stuff. Probably couldn't tell you up from down at this point." Jason laughed to hide his concern.

"Good. Don't let him find out. He's been through enough lately. I don't know how much more he can handle." Sonny was now more concerned about Clay than himself. If things went sideways it could break Clay, and Sonny knew that.

"No worries there. How's he doing? For real?" Jason asked. If talking about Spenser kept Sonny's mind distracted, he'd talk about him al; day.

"I don't know boss. He says he's fine but I don't really buy it. This thing with his dad, it's bothering him more than he lets on." Sonny said.

Jason nodded his head. He had his suspicions, but hearing Sonny actually sayings just confirmed it all for him. "Alright Sonny. Thanks for keeping an eye on him. I need you to keep doing that once we get you out."

"No problem there boss. I just need to get out of this damn thing first." Sonny huffed.

After a few more minutes of silence, Sonny came back on the radio. "Uh Jas… I think we have a little problem in here."

"What's going on Sonny?" Jason asked concerned.

"The tube is filling up with water. Fast." Sonny stated.

/

Ray was keeping a close eye on Clay. He was still short of breath, coughing and experiencing chest pain.

"How long's he gonna be like this?" Ray asked.

The man that was looking over Clay just shrugged his shoulders. "It's hard to say –"

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Hard to say until he sees a real doctor." Ray was getting frustrated. He hated watching Clay struggle and the fact that Sonny has come to check on Clay also had him worried. He knew something wasn't right.

Clay slowly turned his head to look at Ray. He was exhausted and in a ton of pain, but something was off in Ray and he knew it. "What is it?" Clay breathed out.

Ray could barely hear Clay through the oxygen mask, but knew exactly what he was asking. He over looked at Clay and trying not worry him, said "Nothing. Just relax and focus on that breathing."

"Don't lie…please." Clay whispered again, wincing as a twinge of pain hit him.

"I don't know. Something just isn't right." Ray finally admitted

"Jason and Sonny?" Clay asked.

Ray nodded his head. "They shoulda been here by now. I don't know what's going on."

"Go." Clay coughed and then winced at the pain it caused. "Go find out."

"What? No way. I'm not leaving you in here alone like this." Ray protested.

Clay delicately lifted his right arm to remove the mask from his face. "I'm fine. Go find out."

"You said you were fine before and look where we are now." Ray unitentionally started talking louder.

"Please Ray." Clay practically begged.

And that right there was all it took. Those two little words that Ray couldn't say no to. It wasn't just the words though, it was the way the words were said. Clay never begged for anything and although Ray technically wouldn't consider this begging, it was pretty damn close. "Jason's gonna kill me for leaving you here alone, but if you're not gonna drop it, which obviously you aren't, I'll go."

"Thanks." Clay whispered as Ray made him put the mask back on.

Ray reluctantly stood up and walked out of the room. He hated leaving Clay but was dying to find out what was taking Jason and Sonny so long.

He found Jason pacing around the room, radio in hand, staring at the latch that was preventing him from getting to Sonny.

Jason didn't even notice Ray entering the room. It wasn't until Ray called his name that Jason noticed he was there.

"Ray, what are you doing here? I thought I told you stay with Spencer." Jason asked.

"He wouldn't relax until I came. He knows somethings up." Ray said. "Speaking of which… what's going on. Where's Sonny?"

Jason pointed to the torpedo tube. "It's bad Ray."

Ray stared at Jason, waiting for Sonny to pop around a corner and tell him it was all a big joke. Judging by the look on Jason's face though, this was no joking matter. "You're joking right? He's still in there?

Jason nodded his head. "The latch is locked. We can't get it open."

"That little power surge thing?" Ray asked, remember the small rock of the sub and the flicker lights.

"Yeah, that's not the worst of it though. The tube is filling up with water, fast." Jason sighed.

Ray closed his eyes. He knew Sonny had to be freaking out inside that tube. What he didn't understand was why Jason was just pacing around and not doing something to get him out. He knew there had to be a reason.

"Apparently a North Korean Sub is within range. They won't let us cut him out until we're out of range. How's Clay doing?" Jason asked trying to think of something other than Sonny.

"He's holding up. Definitely in some pain and knows were hiding something from him." Ray noted.

"I thought they drugged him up, how could he possibly know something was up?" Jason asked.

"He and Sonny are close. When Sonny didn't come check on him I think he realized something wasn't right." Ray admitted. "He's gonna lose his freaking mind when he finds out about this." Ray mumbled, mostly to himself, but Jason was still able to hear him.

"We just gotta make sure he doesn't find out." Jason quickly answered. He was thinking back to his conversation about Sonny. The stress of this situation would do nothing good for Clay.

"How you gonna hide something like this from him? He's a smart kid, even if he is all drugged up." Ray was trying to comprehend Jason's way of thinking.

"We're not gonna hide it forever, just until we get Sonny out." Jason replied.

Ray shook his head. This had disaster written all over it. "So what do I tell him?"

"Just tell him there's been a slight situation, but it's being handled. If he presses tell him the half-truth, that Sonny's stuck in the tube but were getting him out." Jason said.

Ray wasn't so sure how that conversation was going to go, but he knew he had to tell Clay something. "Let me talk to him before I head back to Clay." Ray said reaching for the radio. "Hey Sonny, how's it going in there?"

"There he is. How ya doing Ray? Clay with you?" Sonny asked.

"Can't really complain now can I?" Ray laughed. Truthfully, he wasn't ok. He had one brother stuck in a torpedo that was filling up with water and another struggling to breathe and on oxygen. He was far from ok, but he would never tell Sonny that. "Clay's still in the other room, he's holding up."

"He still don't know, right?" Sonny asked.

"Not yet, but he's starting to ask questions." Ray admitted.

"He ain't passed out yet?" Sonny questioned.

"Not yet. They gave him one dose but he's kinda fighting it. He's too worried about your sorry ass" Ray tried to lighten up the situation a bit.

"Well tell him I said to quit worryin, he can't get rid of me that easy, and to quit fighting the meds and pass out." Sonny said.

"Sure thing, brother. You hold on in there alright? We're working on getting you out." Ray said before handing the radio back over to Jason.


	5. Chapter 5

Ray made his way back to Clay and was quite annoyed to see him sitting up, arguing with one of the men that was supposed to be helping him. "Clay!? What the hell are you doing?" Ray shouted at him before he even entered the room.

Clay looked over at Ray and waited for him to enter the room to reply. "I was coming to look for you. You were taking a while and I wanted to know what was going on. So tell me, where are Sonny and Jason."

"Oh no. Lay back down. You are in no condition to be up and moving around. I told you I would be back as soon as I had an update, it just took a little longer than I expected." Ray answered firmly, giving the sub men a 'what the hell look.'

"How many times do I have to tell you I'm fine!? Now will you answer my question?" Ray could sense how annoyed Clay was getting, he was getting annoyed himself. This Clay that he was talking to, he wasn't the Clay that Ray was used to.

"Lay back down and listen to what these guys tell you and I'll tell you." Ray challenged Clay, who clearly didn't want to lay back down.

Reluctantly, after realizing Ray wasn't gonna say a thing until he laid back down, Clay lowered himself to a horizontal position.

"Thank you." Ray said, satisfied that Clay was listening for the moment. "Now, it's nothing major but there was a slight power shortage that caused the locking mechanism on the latch of the torpedo tube to lock. Sonny's still stuck in there but –"

Ray's sentence was cut short by Clay swinging his legs off the side of the bed in a second attempt to stand himself up. "Where the hell you think you're going?"

"I gotta check on him Ray. He's probably freaking out. Please. He would do the same thing if it was me stuck in there." Clay pleaded.

There it was again. That pleading tone that Ray couldn't deny. Ray looked at the men who had more of a medical background for approval, waiting for one of them to speak up. "If it'll make him relax, I don't see why it would be a problem, but he has to take it easy. The pain meds are clearly doing their job masking the pain. Just because he's not feeling it right now, doesn't mean the problems gone away."

"I'll keep a close eye on him." Ray promised then focused his attention back on Clay. "I'll take you down, but only for a minute, just so you can see for yourself that he's fine, then you have to promise me you'll come back in here and take it easy until exfil, ok?" Ray asked, making a deal with Clay.

Clay just nodded. He would say whatever Ray needed to hear in order to get to his friend.

The only problem was, through all the hecticness, Ray forgot the seriousness of the situation and that the tube was filling up with water. Had he remembered, he never would have let Clay enter the room.

The walk to the torpedo room was slow. Clay had his right arm slung over Rays shoulder for support as they attempted to navigate the narrow halls. The amount of weight Clay was putting on Ray concerned him and forced him to have second thoughts about this little field trip.

Once they got closer to the room, they could hear Jason yelling and freaking out. It stopped Ray in his tracks, which ultimately led to Clay stopping as well. The yelling reminded Ray of just how serious the situation was. He immediately remembered Jason telling him the tube was filling up with water and judging by Jason's tone, things weren't getting any better. If anything they had gotten worse.

"Maybe we should turn around. Jason's gonna freak out even more if he sees you up and about." Ray said trying to shield Clay from the horrible situation that was unfolding in the room just around the corner from them.

"I'm not going back until I talk to Sonny." Clay was adamant.

It was at that point that Eric rounded the corner, tears forming in his eyes, and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Ray and Clay.

The three men stared at each other, each waiting for the other to say something. When no one did, Blackburn decided to speak up. "I was actually just on my way to command, was coming to find you two first."

The fact that Eric didn't freak out and had tears in his eyes concerned Ray. "How bad is it?" Ray asked.

Blackburn nodded his head up and down, trying to find the words. "It's bad. He needs to hear your voices. Wanted to talk to you both."

Ray knew what Sonny wanted. He wanted to say his goodbyes and if Jason and Blackburn were willing to allow them both into the room, than it had to be really bad.

Clay was still a bit clueless. Ray had seriously downplayed the situation when he told him so Clay had no idea the tube had been filling up with water and that Sonny was quickly running out of air. He had no idea there was a North Korean sub within range causing their sub to go silent. He had no idea he was going to walk into the torpedo room to a defeated Jason Hayes, tears filling his eyes. But he quickly found out.

Ray and Clay approached Jason who was sitting under the torpedo looking completely defeated. Ray had only seen him like this once, and that was when Nate died. Clay had never seen it. Jason handed the radio over to Clay. "Here. He wants to talk to you."

Clay reached for the radio and pushed the button to talk to Sonny. "Hey Sonny, it's uh Clay. How you doing in there?"

Clay wasn't prepared for the voice that replied. It was very obvious that Sonny had been and possibly still was crying. They could all hear the fear in his voice when he said "Clay, hey buddy. I'm just peachy in here. You sound, you sound good. How you feeling?"

"I'll be a whole lot better once we get you out of there." Clay replied.

The silence that came after is what freaked Clay out. Clay was expecting an 'I'll be out before you know it' or something else along those lines. When it didn't come, Clay suddenly knew exactly what everyone else had already known. Sonny was trying to say goodbye.

All of a sudden Clay felt all the air sucked out of him at the thought of losing Sonny. The shortness of breath he was feeling, suddenly skyrocketed as he began to panic. He couldn't believe he was actually hearing Sonny saying his goodbyes. He could hear Sonny's words, but it was like he was speaking a language Clay had never heard before. They just went in one ear and out the other, until finally Sonny went silent.

Ray quickly sat him down, trying to calm him down and steady his breathing.

Clay looked up as Jason approached "Get him…out." He managed to get out in between breaths.

"We've tried everything Clay, the latch won't budge and the captain won't let us cut him out until the North Korean sub is out of range." Jason responded.

"Get him out!" Clay yelled this time, this time with tears forming in his eyes.

Petty Officer Takahashi and Master Chief Wilke entered the room with the grinder just in time to hear Clay's little outbreak. They immediately noticed the tears in his eyes, how much he was struggling to breathe and how the color was beginning to drain from his face.

"North Korean sub gone? We finally able to cut him out?" Jason asked as soon as they entered the room.

"It's moving away. The captain told us to stand by and be ready. He doesn't look ok, you sure he should be down here?" Master Chief Wilke responded.

"Nope." Jason replied, knowing damn well the only way Clay was leaving that room without Sonny being freed was if he passed out from lack of oxygen. "How long till that sub's out of range?"

"Not sure. Maybe two minutes" Wilke answered.

Before anyone knew what was happening, Clay jumped up, somehow managed to grab the grinder out of Takahashi's hand and was about to start cutting, but Wilke managed to tackle him to the ground before he could turn the grinder on.

"Get the fuck off of him!" Jason yelled as Wilke forcibly pinned Clay to the ground. "He can't breathe!"

Wilke looked down and noticed Clay was now wheezing and no longer fighting against his restraint. He stood up slowly, still keeping a hand on Clay to make sure he stayed down, which pissed of Ray and Jason even more.

Wilke had turned to one of his men "Cuff him and detain him back in the wardroom until further notice."

"Come on man. Is that really necessary? Look at him, he ain't going anywhere. He needs medical attention immediately." Ray pleaded.

"Which is why he's being detained in the wardroom." Wilke challenged back.

Before Jason had a chance to throw in his two cents, Blackburn came running in. "Start the grinder? Get him out of there!" He yelled as he entered the room.

Takahashi immediately started the grinder as Wilke and one of his men carried Clay to the wardroom.

"Ray, go with Clay. Blackburn and I will stay until Sonny's cut out then we'll join you." Jason ordered as the anxiously waited for the grinder to cut through the latch.

Ray nodded his head and ran down the hall to catch up with Clay. '_God, could this day get any worse?_' Ray thought to himself. Little did he know, just how much worse it was about to get.

**Hey guys, sorry it took a few days to get this chapter posted. My dog dislocated both hips this weekend so it's been a long couple days. Gonna try my best to still get quick updates for the rest of the chapters though.**


	6. Chapter 6

It was times like this that Jason wished he was able to be in two places at one time. He had a pretty injured Clay, possibly under arrest in one room and Sonny drowning in a torpedo tube in another. Right now though, Jason had to stay with Sonny. Despite Clay being detained and injured, he was still alive. Sonny though, Jason wasn't so sure. He couldn't leave Sonny until he knew.

The mere seconds it took for the grinder to cut the locking mechanism on the latch felt like it took forever.

"Come on, come on, come on." Jason mumbled anxiously as he watched Takashi cutting the latch.

Finally, they heard the ping of the latch snap open and as they did so one of the men pulled the latch open.

Water flew everywhere and six men including Jason and Eric caught Sonny as he came flying out of the tube.

"Careful, get him on the ground." Eric ordered.

"Help me get his kit off!" Jason yelled.

"Look out, give me some room!" Another man yelled as he approached with a medical kit.

"He's not breathing, give him the ambu-bag." Jason instructed as one of the men placed the mask over Sonny's face and started forcing air into his lungs.

"No pulse, grab the defibrillator." One of the men yelled.

"Come on Sonny." Jason continuously chanted.

"Give me the sheers, we gotta get his shirt off!" Eric requested.

Someone promptly handed Eric the scissors, allowing him to quickly cut Sonny's shirt off.

As soon as the shirt was out of the way they were able to place the pads from the defibrillator in their rightful spots.

The listened to the robotic voice advising them that there was no pulse and instructing them to stand clear because a shock was advised.

As the shock went through Sonny, his whole body convulsed. When the first shock didn't work, they tried again.

"Come on Sonny!" Jason continued chanting

The second shock resulted in the same outcome as the first one. "Keep trying!" Eric yelled.

Finally, after the fourth shock, Sonny coughed up a mouthful of water, leading to a coughing fit and Sonny gasping for air.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey , hey! Take it easy." Jason stated with relief. "Alright, we got him! We got him back." He kept telling himself to try to calm down.

"Let's get him on the spine board." One of the men ordered as they carefully rolled him to the side and slid the board underneath him.

"We need to get him to the wardroom. Here, help me lift him." One of the men said.

"No, no, no. We got him. He's our guy." Jason looked up, watching everyone nod in agreement. Jason would be damned if he was going to let Sonny out of his sights so soon after all that just transpired.

"On the count of three, lift him up. Ready? One, two, three." They lifted as soon as Jason hit three.

"It's alright Sonny, We got you, try to take it easy." Blackburn stated as Sonny continued gasping for air.

They swiftly maneuvered down the narrow hallways to the wardroom. As they entered the room, the first thing they noticed was Clay with one arm handcuffed to the bunk post, trying to thrash around, being held down by three men, including Ray.

Jason and the others had placed Sonny down on a table and let one of the 'medics' get to work. Meanwhile, Jason had to figure out what was going on with Clay.

He quickly crossed the room and entered Ray's point of vision. "What's going on with him Ray? Talk to me."

"He won't stop freaking out. He can't breathe at all and is starting to cough up blood. They're afraid more damage was done when he was tackled to the ground and held down." Jason glared over at Wilke, as he continued listening to Ray. "They're pretty sure now, he has a broken rib or two. If he keeps thrashing around like this he could puncture a lung or it could collapse."

Jason re-positioned himself so that he was now in Clay's point of vision. He tried talking to him, trying to calm him down, but it wasn't working.

"He can't hear you, or if he can, he's just not comprehending it. We've already tried talking to him to calm him down." Ray mentioned.

"Can you give him something? Knock him out for a bit." Jason asked.

Ray nodded his head. "Yeah, they have a med kit up in command. One of the guys just ran up there to get it." Ray informed Jason. "How's Sonny?"

Jason looked back over at Sonny. "It was rough, had to shock him four times but we got him back. He's struggling to breathe now but they put him on oxygen. He's slowly starting to relax but he's going to be a little out of it for a bit."

"Good, good. Hear that Clay? Sonny's out of the tube. He's going to be ok." Ray tried again, hoping knowing Sonny was going to be ok would help Clay calm down. It didn't. "God dammit! Where's that medicine at!?"

Jason eyed up the door Justas the guy came running back in, bag of medicine in hand.

They rummaged through the bag looking for the meds they needed. Once they found it, they quickly gave it to Clay and watched as his body slowly started relaxed.

"We need to get off this sub Jas. They both need major medical attention and they can't get that here." Ray stated.

Blackburn jumped into the conversation, satisfied that Sonny was also beginning to relax. "I'll go talk to the captain, see if he can speed this thing up."

"Where's Trent when you need him?" Jason sighed as he sat down and rested his head in his hands. He was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted. He had never been through anything like this in his life. He looked back up and noticed Clay still handcuffed to the bed post. "Can we at least uncuff him? He's calm now."

"No can do. Your man disobeyed a direct order from the captain." Wilke responded.

Jason immediately glared back over at him. It was far from the answer he was expecting. "Excuse me?"

"What he did could have put this whole sub in danger, could have started a war." Wilke answered back.

"You're serious? You're really serious?" Jason asked. It took everything he had in him not to know the opposing master chief out.

"Afraid so." Wilke said. "I don't know how you guys typically operate but down here, no one disobeys a direct order from the captain."

Jason stood up and was now standing inches from Master Chief Wilke's face. "Do you see that kid over there?" Jason asked pointing to a now unconscious Clay. "You have no idea what he's been through the past few months, and that guy over there…" Jason now pointed to Sonny. "That's his best friend. I don't know what kind of meds they gave him earlier, but whatever it was clearly caused him to not think straight. He has never, and would never disobey a direct order if he was in the right frame of fame. That I can assure you."

"I understand Master Chief Hayes, but it's not my call to make." Wilke said.

Jason laughed. He knew Wilke had a good amount of pull and some authority on this sub. "Yeah. Right. But you can make the call to tackle and pin an injured man to the ground."

"He left me no choice. He was going to turn that grinder on and I did what I had to be done to prevent that." Wilke defended himself.

"Yeah? Well, why don't you do what you have to do to get him uncuffed from that bed post? How's that sound?" Jason fired back. "Look at him. He's unconscious, barely able to breathe and is most likely going to be hospitalized once we get off this damn thing."

Wilke looked over at Clay. He did feel bad and a little guilty over what happened even though Clay didn't leave him much of a choice. He wasn't a fan of having these Bravo guys on his sub any more than they wanted to be there. He also knew how much paperwork and headache it would cause IF they went through with Clay's detainment. "I'll talk to the captain. The decision is mainly up to him, but for now, he stays cuffed." Wilke slowly started to back down.

Jason nodded his head and stared at Wilke, giving him a 'what are you waiting for? Go talk to him now' look, that didn't go unnoticed. Wilke silently nodded and agreed. The faster he could get these guys off the sub, the quicker everything could go back to normal.

As soon as Wilke was gone, Jason sat back down next to Sonny. He couldn't wait to get off this damn sub and put this nightmare of a mission behind him.

"It'll all work brother. It always does." Ray sympathized, trying to find a silver lining.

"How does this even happen Ray?" Jay asked, trying to understand.

"Just a freak accident. That's the only explanation I can think of." Ray added.

Blackburn walked back into the room after a brief meeting with the captain. "Captain said they're moving double time. We should be at the boat by the end of the day and they informed us medical would be standing by and ready for us. How they holding up?"

"Sonny's resting, they have him on oxygen and are monitoring his vitals closely. Clay's still struggling. He can't get the oxygen he needs and they don't have the tools needed to intubate. The meds have him pretty knocked out though." Ray informed Blackburn. He was keeping a close eye on Clay and it seemed as time went by, Clay was slowly getting worse. His heart rate had increased, was take quick but shallow breaths, wheezing each time he inhaled, and occasionally coughing up spots of blood.

They all kept watching the clock. Each minute that went by was a minute closer to being off this sub. The only questions that remained were: _Are they going to make it to the boat in time and is the captain going to let Clay off the hook? _

**Hey everyone. Thank you all for the kind words, both about my dog and the last chapter. I appreciate it. My dog seems to slowly be getting better. We have to wait two weeks to see if it heals before we decide on surgery or not. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. The good news is that he has to rest as much as possible, which really only happens when I'm sitting with him which means…. More time to write! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As far as Sonny goes… I'm having a hard time finding what kinds of symptoms and treatments there are for drowning…besides the obvious. If anyone has any idea or knowledge on the subject, please feel free to send me a PM. Thanks again :)**


	7. Chapter 7

About an hour before the sub was supposed to meet up with the boat, the captain entered the wardroom. "How they doing?" He asked sincerely.

Jason, Ray and Eric all looked up as he entered the room, surprised to see him and even more surprised that he seemed to actually care how they were doing.

"They'll be a lot better once we get them off this sub and receive some real medical attention." Jason replied a tad snarky. "Clays progressively getting worse. They had to give him something to knock him out. He panicked when he couldn't breathe and had to be held down until the meds kicked in and he passed out. They said he needs to be intubated but they don't have the proper equipment for it so your guy over there is using a bag-valve mask to breathe for him. Sonny's on the verge of needing to be intubated. He's not there yet, but it's close. His oxygen levels are down. He's pretty out of it when he's awake, which doesn't last too long. He's also coughing a whole lot. The quicker we can get them to a hospital the better. The worst part is having to watch them in pain and struggling, not being able to do anything to help."

The captain nodded his head, taking all the information in and pulled up a chair and sat down. He knew what needed to be done. "Look, about earlier. I'm sorry if I came off as a dick, but I need you guys to understand where I was coming from."

"You don't need to explain yourself to us. We get it. We we're emotionally invested, which clouded our judgement, but we're not used to this type of situation. The work we do, the places we go to, we're used to finding a way to control the outcome and calling the shots to make sure everyone gets to go home. We're the ones that should be apologizing. This is your sub, we're just guests. We never should have questioned you." Jason admitted. It wasn't easy for him to do, but he knew it had to be done.

Ray apologized for his behavior ass well and Eric apologized for letting his men step out of line.

"Now, the real reason I came down here." The captain nodded towards Clay. "Master Chief Wilke explained the situation to me. Said your man there was under the influence of some pretty gnarly pain meds when he reached for the grinder."

"He was." Blackburn said. "He has never done anything like that before and I guarantee it'll never happen again. That I can assure you."

"I believe you. I do. And as long as you can promise that it'll never happen again, I'm willing to look the other way. Judging by his condition, I doubt he'd even remember what went on anyway." Captain said. The sight of Sonny and Clay made his heart drop. This was his sub and he was responsible for the safety and wellbeing of everyone on it. Never in his career had he had a guy seriously injured on his watch, let alone two. He wished he was able to do more. The best he could do was look the other way for Clay and get the sub to boat as fast as possible.

Jason, Ray and Eric all looked at the captain with surprised looks. They fully expected to have to fight for Clay. This was the complete opposite. "We promise. He's a great kid. Gonna be an amazing team leader one day. He's just had a run of bad luck the past few months. We can assure you it will never happen again."

"Alrighty then." The captain stated. He then stood up and made his way over to Clay, where he uncuffed him and carefully lowered his arm back down to his side. "I gotta get back up to the command center. We should be approaching the boat any time now. It was a pleasure having you on board, minus all the negative."

"Appreciate it captain. Thanks for having us." Blackburn replied reaching out a hand to offer a handshake.

Jason let out a huge sigh of relief after the captain left the room. That was now, one last thing Jason had to worry about. Now all he had to worry about was keeping Clay and Sonny alive until they could get real medical attention and getting them on the mend.

Ray and Eric were also extremely relieved. Not only are they extremely worried about Clay and Sonny, but they were also worried about what kind of trouble Jason would get into if the captain had decided to follow through with the charges against Clay.

The captain of the sub had kept the medical staff of the ship up to date on Clay and Sonny's conditions that way when they arrived at the ship, they would be prepared.

Once they finally met up with the ship, the medics quickly boarded the sub and made their way to the wardroom. They split up into two groups, half going over to Clay and the other half going over to Sonny.

"I know they're your guys but we need you to step out of the room so that we can work." One of them men urged. It was a small room to begin with and there just wasn't enough room for everyone to be in there.

Eric and Ray nodded and started making their way towards the door when they noticed Jason wasn't following. "Come on Jas, they need the room." Ray mentioned.

Jason shook his head. "I can't leave them. I need to know they're ok." Jason mumbled. He was scared to leave them. Last time they were out of his sight, Sonny almost died. He was never going to let that happen again.

"You're not leaving them. You can watch from the doorway. These men need the room to work." Blackburn added, hoping he wouldn't have to forcibly order Jason to leave the room.

Reluctantly, Jason agreed, but he going to stand in that doorway and make damn sure he didn't lose two of his men.

They quickly evaluated Sonny, deciding it would be better for now not to intubate. He was already at high risk for developing pneumonia, intubating would increase the chances. They quickly hooked him up to IV's and transferred him to a spine board so that they could transfer him to the 'hospital' on the ship where he could receive the proper care he needed.

Jason began to panic slightly as Sonny was carried away from the room. He didn't like the idea of them being separated and didn't know who to stay with. Go with Sonny… or stay with Clay.

Ray made the decision for him. "Stay with Clay, I'll keep an eye on Sonny."

Jason nodded as Ray once again reminded him why he was his number two. He always knew what Jason needed and was willing to do whatever it took to help him.

Once Ray and Sonny were gone, Jason and Eric watched in horror as the medics struggled to intubate Clay. Once they had successfully secured his airway, they quickly rolled him to the right, slid a spine board under him and rushed him out of the room.

They could sense the urgency in the medics and started getting the feeling that things might be worse than they originally thought.

As soon as they boarded the ship, they were escorted to a 'waiting room.' It was basically just a small room outside of the ships medical center where they could wait to see how Clay and Sonny were. Jason and Eric weren't surprised to see Ray already sitting in there.

Ray looked up as Jason and Eric entered the room, but didn't say anything. Jason and Eric sat down next him where they sat there in silence, playing the different scenarios that could happen in their minds.

It was about 45 minutes later when one of the medics came out to talk to them. "Sonny's stable for now. I ran a couple tests and took some x-rays. It appears he's starting to show signs of pneumonia. It's pretty common in near-drowning victims. He's forming a fever, short of breath and had an inflamed airway. We started him on a course of antibiotics and placed him on oxygen. There's a good chance he may need to be intubated if his condition worsens, but for right now were trying to avoid that."

"Is he awake? Can we see him? What about Clay? Is he going to be ok?" The questions continued flowing, cause the medic to put his hand up to stop them.

"We have him sedated at the moment, but you are more than welcome to go visit him." The medic replied.

"What about Clay?" Jason asked.

"I'll be honest, it's amazing he made it to the ship alive. We're finishing up a few more tests, then he'll most likely be headed in to surgery, but he's incredibly lucky."

"Lucky? Have you seen him? How do you call that lucky?!" Jason fumed.

"Because given his injuries, he should have been dead. Those guys on the sub did a great job at keeping him alive." The medic said.

"What are his injuries?" Ray asked.

"He has three cracked and two broken ribs. One of the broken ribs cut and punctured his left lung. It wasn't a huge puncture which we think is why he's still alive. If it would have been any larger, more air and blood would have been allowed to escape into his chest cavity, which would have ultimately collapsed his lung. His lung is also quite bruised. We consider anything over 20% bruised to be serious and potentially life-threatening. He is at 15%."

"So what happens now?" Jason asked as they all tried to soak in this new information.

"As soon as we're done running tests, we'll take him back to surgery where we will perform a thoracotomy to repair the broken ribs and lung and insert a thorocostomy tube to help drain any air or blood that may form."

"How does this even happen?" Jason was trying to understand.

"From what we understand, he was thrown against a rock by a wave. We believe this resulted in the cracked ribs and bruised lung which would explain why he didn't show immediate symptoms of it. The swim, altitude and pressure didn't help. We think once he was tackled to the ground, two of the cracked ribs broke, cutting and puncturing his lung. The adrenaline kept him from feeling the chest pain which is why he didn't immediately panic. Once they got him to the room and the adrenaline started wearing off, that's when he realized he couldn't breathe and felt the chest pain kick in. If the impact of being tackled isn't what punctured the lung than the thrashing around he did while panicking is. There's no way it happened during the initial impact with the rock. He wouldn't be alive right now if it had."

This had Jason's head spinning. The worst of this could have been avoided if that prick, Wilke, wouldn't have tackled Clay, but Wilke wouldn't have had to tackle Clay if he would have just obeyed orders. Regardless, he was going to have a little talk with Clay once he was well enough.

When no one responded to the medic, he realized they were all wrapping their heads around the information they were just given. "If you'd like, I can show you to Sonny's room. You can wait for an update on Clay in there."

All three men nodded their heads. They were all at a loss for words. The medic silently led them down the hall to Sonny's room and before entering the room turned around to talk to them. "Just remember, we do have him slightly sedated. He needs all the rest he can get right now. If he does wake up, he's going to be pretty out of it. Just remind him to relax and ensure him everything will be ok."

Once again the three men nodded their heads and then thanked the medic before entering the room.

**Hey guys. I hope you are all having a great weekend. Thank you to everyone who sent me a pm. I read them all and they all seemed to contain pretty similar information. I did the best I could with the information and although it might not all be 100% accurate, I did my best. Anyway, hope you all enjoy the chapter.**


	8. Chapter 8

Looking at Sonny, you would never know that he had to be resuscitated just a few short hours ago. No cuts, no bruises, no blood. Nothing. The only sign that anything was wrong was the deep, shallow breaths he would take, accompanied by the occasional wheezing. He was hooked up to all kinds of monitors and IV's as well as an oxygen mask to help him breathe. Other than that, he looked like he did any other time he was sleeping.

But he wasn't 'just sleeping.' According to the doctors he was nowhere near out of the woods yet and in simpler terms, still fighting for his life.

Jason, Ray and Eric sat there, all getting lost deeper and deeper into their thoughts. Trying to think of ways to explain what happened, how they were going to move forward, what they were going to do if Clay, Sonny or both didn't make it.

No matter how hard they tried, the thoughts wouldn't go away. Jason stood up and headed for the door. "I need to get some air."

Ray and Eric looked at each other as Jason left the room. Ray was about to get up and follow when Blackburn stopped him. "Let him go. He just needs a minute."

Ray nodded and sat back down. "He's got 10 minutes before I go looking for him."

Blackburn silent agreed. "They're going to be ok you know." He said reassuringly after a few minutes of silence went by.

"I want to believe that Blackburn. Lord knows how bad I want to believe that." Ray admitted.

"Then do it. What good is negative thinking going to do for anyone? You gotta keep the positive thoughts." Blackburn said.

"Yeah." Ray said, tears starting to form in his eyes. "I'm gonna go check on Jason, keep an eye on Sonny."

Ray let the tears fall as soon as he left the room. He stopped to lean against the wall about halfway down the hallway. He slid down the wall until he was in a crouching position and continued to let the tears fall. He had to get it all out of his system before he confronted Jason.

He knew Jason was going to be a big ball of emotions once he found him, and he was going to have to be his rock. He couldn't do that if he was a big ball of emotions as well, so he continued to let it all out until he was able to pull himself back together.

Once he managed to compose himself, he stood back up and went to find his friend. It took him a few minutes but he finally found him on the ships deck, leaning against a rail and staring out at the ocean.

He silently walked up and stood next to Jason. He could see the tears and hurt in his eyes. Ray decided it would be best to let him break the silence once he was ready, which didn't take too long.

"I don't understand Ray. I don't understand why all of this is happening. I cant-" Jason sobbed.

"I know Jas. None of us can understand it. Maybe it's not meant to be understood… but it happened. The only thing we can do is go back in there, be there for Sonny, wait for news on Clay, be there for Clay and help them get through this, because they WILL get through it. We all will" Ray took a page out of the Blackburn handbook.

"I just, I'm ready to be back stateside. This whole mission has just been one fuck up after another. None of this was supposed to happen." Jason said.

"We'll get there brother. As soon as Sonny and Clay are stable enough to fly, were heading home. We're gonna get through is. All of us." Ray preached. He looked over at Jason and could tell his words were getting through to him. "Let's go back in. It's been a few hours, we should be getting an update on Clay soon."

Ray patted Jason on the shoulder and headed back inside, Jason following close behind. As they entered the room, they found Blackburn sitting closer to Sonny, giving him a little 'pep talk.' He stopped as soon as Jason and Ray walked in.

They sat down and started making small talk, trying to keep themselves busy to prevent the negative thought from creeping back in.

A young female nurse on ship would come in and check on Sonny every 30-45 minutes. She always assured him he was doing ok, given the circumstances, and his vitals were holding steady. Granted they weren't exactly where they should be, but at least they weren't getting any worse.

They all stood up when a young man, assumed to be another nurse on the ship, entered the room. They hadn't seen him yet and hoped he came bearing news of Clay. He did.

"He made it through the surgery without any further complications. The surgeons managed to repair the broken ribs and lung and inserted a chest tube in case any further air or blood escape into his chest wall. They're stitching him up now and once they're done he'll be moved to his room. Any questions?" The young man asked. It was obvious to them that this kid hasn't done this too many times before.

"Can he be moved to this room?" Blackburn asked. He knew they would all want to be together.

"Unfortunately, no. The rooms on the ship aren't big enough to have two beds plus all the equipment in one room. I'm sorry." The man said.

"How long till we can see him?" Jason asked.

"Shouldn't be too long. Someone will come get you as soon as he's settled." The young man said before leaving the room.

"God damn, the sooner we get off this ship the better. Get them to a real hospital with rooms big enough to accommodate two beds at the same time." Jason mumbled.

Ray and Eric could sense Jason falling back into the negativity. "Easy man. It'll be fine. Give them a day or two and we'll be headed back stateside." Eric said.

Jason agreed. He didn't like it, but he still agreed.

They waited about a half hour for someone to tell them Clay was settled into his room.

"You two go. I'll stay with Sonny." Blackburn told Ray and Jason.

Jason and Ray followed the doctor to the room directly to the left of Sonny's. '_At least the rooms were close' _Jason thought.

Before entering the room, the doctor gave them a heads up. "I'm not sure how much you've been told, but he did have some pretty severe damage to his left lung. It was dangerously close to collapsing, but we managed to get in and prevent that from happening just in time. As a result of the trauma, we have placed him into an induced coma and put him on a ventilator. This is just to give his lung time to heal and also to help manage the pain. We expect to keep him like this for a day or two, until he's strong enough to breathe on his own."

Jason and Ray heard the doctor, but barely acknowledged him as they entered Clay's room. Walking in, they were in disbelief. When this first happened, he had a badly scraped arm. They thought that was the worst of it. Now he was lying in a hospital bed, practically lifeless, needing a machine to breathe for him and keep him alive.

Jason and Ray eyed Clay up from head to toe, taking in the sight, still trying to understand how this happened and realizing they were probably never going to find out that answer. It was an accident, mostly, and accidents happen.

They each pulled up a chair to Clay's bedside and sat down. They talked to him, told him they were sorry for letting this happen to him, that he was going to be ok, that he needed to wake up because he was the only one who could keep Sonny in line, told him how Sonny was doing. Cracked a few jokes and waited for him to laugh or respond in some way even though they knew it wasn't going to happen.

Doctors were constantly in and out of the room, keeping a close eye on Clay. Jason and Ray had retreated to the outer edges of the room trying to stay out of their way, asking the occasional questions from time to time when they entered.

The young female nurse that was checking on Sonny while Clay was still in surgery was also one of the nurses checking on Clay. She seemed to sympathize with them the most. She would explain things more thoroughly about what they were checking, what certain numbers meant and how he was doing. She constantly tried to reassure them that both Sonny and Clay were going to be ok with time. They wanted to believe her, it was just hard at the moment.

Once she left, they looked at each other. "I know you want to stay here. I'm gonna go check on Sonny and Blackburn. I'm sure Eric's itching to get here." Ray said to Jason.

"Hey Ray." Jason stopped Ray as he was about to walk out of the room.

Ray turned around to Jason.

"Thanks for always being there and knowing what to say." Jason thanked him.

"Anytime brother. Now try and get some rest. You look exhausted." Ray responded.

Although not happy with the conditions of his two men, Jason felt a bit of relief after seeing them and constantly being reassured that they were going to be ok. He decided to listen to Ray and sat back in the slightly uncomfortable chair and closed his eyes. He was out before he even knew it.

Ray walked back into Sonny's room and was somewhat surprised to see Blackburn slumped in a chair, feet up on Sonny's bed with his arms crossed, passed out. Blackburn was just as exhausted as the rest of them and Ray didn't have the heart to wake him. He could go see Clay and Jason when he woke up.

He spotted an empty chair in the corner and sat down. He looked over at Sonny, who appeared to be resting comfortably, and then back over to Blackburn, as he reflected on the last 24 hours of hell.

After becoming lost in his thoughts for who knows how many times that day, he finally allowed his eyes to close and his body to get some rest.


	9. Chapter 9

About halfway through the second day, Jason was sitting with Sonny while Ray and Blackburn were in with Clay. All in all, they had a pretty peaceful night, minus the constant in and out of the nurses. They hoped the day would be the same.

Jason was making small talk with one of the nurses who was checking on Sonny. It wasn't something he would typically do, but it helped distract him and make the time go by quicker. As they were talking, he looked over at Sonny and was surprised to see Sonny staring back him.

He looked over at the nurse, not sure if he should try talking to him or let him rest. They both walked over to Sonny and he watched their every move. "Hey Sonny, it's going to be ok. We're off the sub and in a hospital on the ship. Just try and keep relaxing ok brother?" Jason assured Sonny.

Sonny just nodded his head, too weak to try to answer. In a matter of seconds a coughing fit came on. Jason did his best to keep Sonny calm and relaxed, reminding him to breathe in between coughs while the nurse administered his next dose of antibiotics.

Minutes after the coughing started, Sonny slipped back into a deep sleep and the coughing ended. Jason looked over at the nurse. "What the hell was that!?" He yelled in concern.

"It's nothing to worry about, in fact it probably won't be the last time it happens. The water that entered his lungs when he drowned irritated the lining of his lungs. He also developed slight pneumonia. Coughing is a big symptom associated with both of those. It's something that will gradually dwindle away as he recovers." The nurse assured Jason.

"You're sure?" Jason was skeptical. He had a hard time believing anything anyone said medically, unless Trent was the one saying it. Trent knew the team better than anyone and the fact that he wasn't here stressed Jason out that much more.

"I'm positive, now you should really get some rest yourself. The three of you are running ragged since you've been here. If you guys don't take care of yourselves, you'll find yourself in a hospital bed as well."

Jason sat down but didn't bother replying. A part of him knew she was right, but there was no way he'd be able to relax until he knew Sonny and Clay were alright, especially after what he just went through with Sonny.

About an hour after the nurse left, Ray entered the room to check on Sonny and Jason. "How you doing over here?" He asked.

"Not good Ray. Not good at all." Jason finally admitted. "Sonny woke up a little bit ago while the nurse was still in here. He didn't say anything but practically coughed his lungs up. Nurse said its 'normal.'' Jason air quoted. "I just, I wish Trent was here to reassure me that he really is going to be ok."

"I hear ya there. We're only going to hopefully be here for a day or two more. One of the nurses in Clay's room said Sonny's cleared to fly, they're just waiting for Clay to stable out a little more. As soon as that happens we'll be on a plane and you know Trent, Brock and Lisa will be chomping at the bit at that hospital to see them." Ray tried reassuring Jason.

"How is Clay?" Jason asked.

"About the same. They're still keeping a close eye on all his vitals and I think they said something about taking some more x-rays later today to see how everything's healing up. Other than that, he's holding up. He's fighting." Ray said.

"Good. That's real good." Jason replied while turning his attention back to Sonny.

"When's the last time you ate? I'm gonna run down to the cafeteria, you want anything?" Ray asked.

Jason shook his head no. He wasn't hungry at all. One look at Ray's face though told Jason that Ray wasn't satisfied with that answer. "Fine, bring me back whatever." Jason slightly snapped.

Ray just looked at him. There was no point in arguing. Whatever he said at this point was just going to go in one of Jason's ears and out the other. He decided it would just be best to walk away and give Jason his space and time to think.

When he returned, he decided to drop Blackburn's lunch off first. "I'm gonna sit with Jason and Sonny for a bit. Jason's not dealing too well. You gonna be ok in here with him for a bit?" Ray asked.

"Of course. Go do what you have to do. We'll be ok in here." Blackburn replied.

Ray thanked him and then returned to Sonny's room. He had picked up burgers and fries from the cafeteria and handed Jason his.

Jason reluctantly took it from Ray and placed it on the chair next him.

"I ain't leaving this room till you eat that, you know." Ray said as he pulled up a chair and sat down.

"Come on Ray. I'm just not hungry." Jason protested.

"I don't care Jas. You haven't eaten in like two days. You have to eat something. At least eat the burger." Ray argued.

Jason glared at Ray as he grabbed the burger and took a bite. "Happy?" He asked.

"I will be once you finish it." Ray glared back.

Jason rolled his eyes at his friend and slowly, bite by bite, finished the burger.

"Now I'm happy. Ray muttered.

"Any idea when we're getting out of here?" Jason asked, completely forgetting about the conversation he and Ray had earlier about waiting for Clay to become for stable before he could fly.

"All depends on Clay. Why don't you go check on him, keep Blackburn company for a bit. I'll hang out here with Sonny."

Jason agreed and headed a room over to see Clay. It was still so hard for Jason to see his youngest member in the condition he was in, but somehow, the sound of the machine breathing for him and the steady beat of the heart monitor kept him calm. It reminded him that despite how bad he looked, he was still alive.

He pulled a chair up next to Blackburn and sat down. "You finally eat?" Eric asked.

"Ray told you I wasn't eating?" Jason asked.

"He's just worried about you. We both are." Blackburn replied.

"I'll be alright." Jason assured him.

"They're gonna take some more x-rays in a few minutes. Make sure everything's healing right and then they'll make the decision about whether or not he fly yet or not." Blackburn informed him.

"And if he can?" Jason asked.

"If he can then you'll be on the first flight out tomorrow." A nurse cut in as she entered the room. "Now if you boys don't mind, I'm gonna have you step into the other room for a moment while we run some tests and take his x-rays. I'll come get you as soon as we're finished.

Jason and Eric both stood up and walked into Sonny's room. Ray stood up, nervous that they were booth there and Clay was alone.

"Everything's still ok. They're just running some tests and taking some x-rays, asked us to step out of the room." Eric said after seeing the nervous look on Ray's face. "If everything looks ok, they said we'll be on the first flight out tomorrow morning."

That was good news. It was the first time anyone mentioned flying them home, which meant they were one step closer to normal. They all sat there, silently praying, waiting for someone to enter with good news.

The waiting was the worst. The longer they sat there, the more worried they became.

**Hey guys I'm glad you're all still enjoying the story. Question for you guys. Would you prefer shorter chapters more often or longer chapters a little more spread out? I'll do my best to post as often as possible regardless of which decision you guys make, it'll just depend on my work schedule and vet appointments with the dog. We have an appointment tomorrow morning so I should have a better idea of what the next move will be after that. Thank you all for your kind words. They're super appreciated.**


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning came before any of them knew it. None of them had expected Clay and Sonny to get the ok to fly so soon, so when the doctors informed them they were clear, they were elated.

Clay and Sonny were each wheeled onto the plane and tightly secured in the rightful area. Clay was still in an induced coma, so they weren't worried about him waking up midflight. Sonny on the other hand was only under sedation, so in order to prevent him from also waking up, they placed him under a stronger sedation that would keep him out for the duration of the flight.

As the plane touched down on American soil, they had a medical crew already waiting for them to transport them to the hospital.

Jason, Ray, and Eric allowed the medical crew to gather Clay and Sonny and then followed behind them as they were each placed in an ambulance.

To their total surprise, which shouldn't have been a surprise at all, Trent, Brock, Cerb and Lisa were already at the ambulances waiting.

Jason ad never been so excited to see them, especially Trent. He grabbed Trent and gave him a huge bear hug. "God am I glad to see you!" He practically sobbed.

It totally threw Trent off guard to see his team leader, who was usually so calm and unemotional, an emotional wreck. It was at that point that Trent realized things were worse than they originally thought. As far as they knew, Sonny drowned and had to be resuscitated, and Clay scraped his arm and was having a little trouble breathing. Other than that, things seemed to be kept hush hush. "How bad is it?" Trent asked after Jason finally let go.

"Its bad Trent, it's real bad. Sonny developed pneumonia, they've been keeping a super close eye on him to make sure it doesn't get any worse. If it does they said he might need to be intubated." Lisa gasped at the word intubated. That's one word she never wanted to hear in the same sentence with Sonny's name. She didn't want to hear it with any of their names. "They're doing whatever they can to prevent that from happening though. He woke once, acknowledged me in the room and then started coughing uncontrollably until the nurse gave him something to knock him out. Clay's a little worse." Jason said before he was cut off.

"I'm sorry, did you just say worse? What the hell happened?" Brock asked. Sonny sounded like he was in pretty rough shape, how could Clay be worse. He had a scraped arm and a little trouble breathing.

Jason looked over at Brock. "It's a long story. I'll explain everything at the hospital." Jason sighed.

Ray and Eric had each jumped in an ambulance with Sonny and Clay as they took off for the hospital. Jason elected to drive over with the rest of the team, now that they were all finally reunited.

"They already have a room ready for them. I don't know if they were expecting them in the condition they're in, but they know they're coming." Davis added.

It was a quick car ride to the hospital. As soon as they walked in, they saw Ray and Eric sitting in the waiting room. "What are you doing down here? I thought they had a room ready for them." Jason asked.

"They wanted to run some tests to see if the flight had any effects on them." Eric commented.

"How long is that gonna take? Are they going to be in the same room?" Jason questioned.

"No idea. They said they'd come get us when they were done. As far as I know they saved a room in the ICU for both of them." Blackburn responded.

"ICU!?" Lisa, Brock and Sonny all questioned at the same time.

"Ok. What the hell happened?" Trent demanded.]

Jason sat down and the others followed suit. He looked at Eric and Ray and once he realized they were waiting for him to give the explanation, he opened his mouth. "Long story short – Clay was thrown against a rock by a rogue wave, scraped his arm up pretty good. He convinced us he was fine. He looked fine, except for his arm. We completed the mission, during the swim back he started falling behind about halfway to the sub. We dropped back, allowed him to be the first one back on the sub so he could get checked out. Ray and I were next. We instantly went and checked on Clay. They cleaned his arm up and put him on oxygen to help him breathe. They thought it could have been a bruised lung from the impact with the rock."

"That had to be a pretty damn hard hit. Is that what it was?" Trent interrupted.

"I'm getting there." Jason replied. "Anyway. I went to go check on Sonny, turns out the locking mechanism on the torpedo tubes locked. Sonny was stuck. Captain wouldn't let us cut him out cause a NK sub was nearby. He was running low on air so I sent Blackburn to go get Ray and Clay so they could say their goodbyes. Clay lost his shit, grabbed the grinder that was going to be used to cut Sonny out and before he could turn it on was tackled to the ground by one of the sub guys. That's when things got significantly worse for Clay. Minutes later we got the all clear to cut Sonny out. We had to resuscitate him. Brought him to the room Clay was being taken care of it. Once we entered the room, Clay was thrashing around, panicking, in pain, unable to breathe, coughing up spots of blood AND handcuffed to the bed post. They had to give him some sort of medication to calm him down so that he didn't cause any more damage to himself."

"Fucking assholes." Brock mumbled under his breath.

"Tell me about it." Jason replied. "It took some work, but we finally managed to convince the captain to turn the other way and forget about the incident with Clay. I really thought they were going to press charges against him. I didn't know what I was gonna do."

"Yeah, but you don't have to worry about that now, they didn't press charges and that's all that matters." Lisa added.

"Yeah. I guess so. Anyway. We made it to the ship where they could actually receive real medical attention. Sonny developed pneumonia, had a fever, couldn't catch his breath, inflamed airway. They sedated him and placed him on antibiotics and oxygen. Woke up just that one time and now here we are. Clay though, he had three cracked ribs, two broken ribs, a lacerated and punctured lung, bruised 15% of his lung, developed a pneumothorax, had to have emergency surgery to repair it all and they inserted a chest tube while they were in there. They placed him in an induced coma and have him on a ventilator to allow his lungs to heal."

"What?" slipped out of Lisa's mouth, covering her mouth with her hand.

"I needed you Trent. It was so hard having to trust all those doctors without you. You know us more than anyone. The smallest little things that happened, freaked me out." Jason admitted.

"I'm sorry. You know I would have been there in a heartbeat if I could have been." Trent replied.

"Well it won't ever happen again, that I can assure you. If one guy goes, the whole team goes. No more sending half the team while the other half stays behind." Blackburn assured them.

"I just. I need to know they're going to be ok." Jason mumbled.

"I haven't seen either one of them yet, and they both sound pretty banged up, but you gotta remember who were talking about Jason. It's Sonny and Clay. They're both fighters and you know they'll both fight like hell to get through this." Trent stated.

"I know, I know. It's just… the whole mission was a shitshow. One bad thing after the next. What if it's not over?" Jason wondered.

"You can't think like that Jason. You're home. They made it here alive. You have to believe that everything's going to be ok." Lisa said.

Before the conversation could go any further a nurse entered the room to speak to them. She gave them the update that the flight didn't seem to have taken a toll on either one of them and that they were both currently resting in their room.

Room. That word stuck out to Jason. Room as in one room. "Same room?" Jason asked needing to hear it out loud.

"Yes sir." The nurse smiled and winked. "We know how close you team guys are." It was true. They were no strangers to team guys coming in and out of the hospital.

"Can we see them?" Eric asked.

"Of course, follow me." They all stood up and followed the nurse down the hall. She entered the last room on the right, which was clearly a larger room than some of the others they had passed.

Brock had taken Cerb off the leash once they entered the room. They only reason he was even allowed in was because he was a well-trained working dog. He carefully sniffed around the room, reassuring himself the place was safe and then put his front feet up on Sonny's bed, sniffed Sonny, then walked over to Clay's bed a did the same thing. After 'declaring the room safe' Cerb carefully jumped up on Clay's bed and curled up on the foot of the bed.

"Looks like your dog has a new human." Trent joked.

"He's had a soft spot for Clay since the day the kid joined the team. At least I know he'll be well taken care if anything ever happens to me." Brock replied.

"Don't talk like that. Especially not here, not now." Lisa hit him on the arm.

Trent walked over to Sonny and then over to Clay, doing his own 'exam' of his two teammates. He didn't like that either one of them were in this situation, but he was confident they would both pull through.

After getting a good look at both guys, he pulled up a chair and sat down.

One by one, the rest of the spread out throughout the room and did the same. They had a long couple of days ahead them, but as long as they were all there together, they knew they would be able to get through it.

**Alright, you guys spoke. Seems like shorter and more often was the poplar decision so here's the next chapter. I'm getting ready to head to the vet now, but will give an update on the pup with the next chapter. Anyway, hope you all enjoy this chapter and I'm so happy you all love the story!**


	11. Chapter 11

Cerb stayed on Clay's bed throughout the entire night, carefully watching every single nurse and doctor that touched and fussed with Clay, making sure they didn't hurt him any worse than he already was. He kept an eye on Sonny too, just from the comfort of Clay's bed.

On the third day, the doctors decided they wanted to start weaning Clay off of the ventilator to see how he would do and remove the chest tube. "His lung seems to be healing nicely. The bruising is going down, the chest tube now has little to no drainage." The nurse said.

"Is his lung strong enough to handle the weaning?" Trent asked.

"We believe it is. We have no plans to take him off the ventilator completely just yet, but this is a big step in the right direction." The nurse assured him.

Minutes later, a doctor entered the room and had the team, including Cerb, step out of the room so that he could remove the chest tube. It wasn't a long procedure, if you could even consider it a procedure, and went as well as the doctors could have hoped for.

As soon as he was finished, he allowed the team back in, Cerb hoping back up on Clay's bed and the rest of the team heading to their previous seats.

It was only 1:00 and already seemed to be a day full of progress. Clay had his chest tube removed and began being weaned off the vent. As if it couldn't have been a better day, Ray looked over at Sonny and noticed his eyes were open. He jumped up and quickly made his way over to Sonny. "Hey brother. Just take it easy. We made it home."

Sonny looked over at him and nodded his head, but refused to say anything. He was tired, despite doing nothing but sleeping the last few days, his chest hurt and breathing was still painful, but it reached a point where it was a tolerable pain as long as he focused completely on his breathing. That meant, although he was now awake, he was completely oblivious to the fact that his entire team was now standing around him, except for one person.

Trent went to get a nurse to inform them that Sonny had woken up. When he and the nurse returned, she starting asking him simple yes or no questions. "Do you remember what happened?" She asked.

Sonny nodded, although he wished he didn't remember.

"Are you in pain?"

He nodded again. His chest and head were killing him and he was fighting the strong urge to cough, which ultimately was a battle he ended up losing.

The difference between this time and last time… this time the coughing wasn't as intense. The nurse didn't seemed too worried about it, assured the team it was still normal. Everyone looked at Trent for his opinion, thankful that agreed. "The water in his lungs mixed with the pneumonia caused a lot of irritation in his lungs. That's gonna make him cough."

"Do you want more pain meds?"

Sonny shook his head no. Yes, he was in some pretty serious pain, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. All he really wanted to do was go back to sleep. Everyone seemed to pick up on that.

"Do you want to go back to sleep?"

Sonny nodded his head and then began drifting off. Once he had fallen back asleep, the nurse explained that he should be a little more with it the next time he wakes up, and that he should now begin waking up more often now that some of the sedation had been lifted.

After she left, they started grilling Trent with questions. Some that he knew the answers to and some that he didn't. It made him feel good how much faith and trust they all put in him.

After they were done question Trent, most of them returned to their seats. Davis had decided to go for a walk, to stretch her legs and get some air. This whole ordeal with Sonny had her overwhelmed. The last time they had spoken didn't end on the greatest terms and she was terrified that would be their last conversation. That fact that he had now woken up and was making daily progress, flooded her with emotions.

Once she made it outside, she slid down the wall and let the tears flow. Happy tears, sad tears, scared tears. She didn't know anymore. He woke up and was going to eventually be ok. She had no idea why she was crying at all. What she did know though was the she and Sonny had a lot to talk about once she able to get some alone time with him.

Back inside, Blackburn was wondering if he should go look for Lisa. It was no secret how close the two of them were and he knew that made it just that much harder to deal with. Ultimately, he decided to give her some space and remained in the room.

He looked around the room at his men, exhaustion showing on all of them. Part of him wanted to order half of them to head home and rotate shifts at the hospital, but the other part of him knew the chances of that happening weren't very likely. He decided for now he would keep his mouth shut, allow them to remain in the room until they knew their guys were going to be ok.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Jason asked Eric, seeming him deep in thought.

Eric shrugged it off as just being tired. It wasn't necessarily a lie.

Jason bought it and dropped it, bringing up the next topic. "So am I the only one wondering about Sonny and Clay or no?"

"What do you mean?" Ray asked.

"Sonny clearly didn't notice Clay missing when he woke up. He has no idea how bad of shape Clay is in. No idea at all. He's gonna freak when he finds out. Do we tell him? Do we wait and let him ask? I mean they're in the same room, it's not like it's gonna take him long to find out." Jason started babbling as he played out a million different scenarios in his mind.

**Hey everyone. Here's a quick, short little chapter. I'll try to make the next one longer. I struggled a little with this chapter so I know it's not my best but I still hope you enjoy it. My dogs vet appointment went ok yesterday. The specialist said his hips are so bad that she doesn't think he would be a good candidate for surgery so for now were just trying physical therapy. He had our first session today and it went pretty ok. If therapy doesn't work then they might start talking about surgery again but as of right now it's not needed. Thank you to everyone who has asked and messaged me about it. I really appreciate it. **


	12. Chapter 12

As the next morning approached, the team knew they had to tell Sonny about Clay. He was in a bed practically right next to him. It's not like he wouldn't notice him…eventually. What they weren't sure of was how much to tell him right away. Do they tell him Clay went off the deep end after Sonny said his goodbyes and had to be tackled to the ground, injuring him more? Or do they wait until he's strong enough to handle that truth? They had no idea what to do.

Sonny was still half out of it when he woke up, so he didn't notice too much. He was tired and sore. Knew he was in a hospital, and if you've been in one, you've been in them all, so he didn't feel a need to look around. He once again notice the team standing around him, and once again noticed someone missing.

He wasn't sure how long it's been since the last time he woke up, but the fact that Clay wasn't there either time was enough to make Sonny start worrying.

Sonny slowly reached up to move the oxygen mask from his face so that they could hear him. As he did so, Jason gently stopped him, telling him he needed to leave it on.

Sonny eyed him, held up a hand to say 'just a minute' and at that point they realized he was trying to say something.

"Go ahead" Jason said softly.

Sonny slowly raised his arm again, this time able to temporarily remove the mask. "Where…" cough, cough "Is he?" Sonny quietly breathed out, and he began to cough.

They all knew 'he' was Clay.

Jason and Trent, who were unintentionally blocking Sonny's view of Clay, looked at each other. "You have to promise not to freak out. Okay?" Jason said.

"And put the mask back on." Trent ordered as he took it upon himself to grab the mask and place it back where it should be.

Sonny looked confused. Why would he be confused?

Jason and Trent each took a step to the side, giving Sonny a clear view of Clay.

Sonny's face looked like he had just seen a ghost. He didn't understand what was going on. He knew Clay was a little banged up, but this? This didn't make any sense. He talked to Clay, said his goodbyes to him. He sounded mostly normal, except for the slight shortness of breath and the slight crying. He was trying his hardest remain calm, which was becoming harder and harder the more he looked at him.

Sonny quickly glared over at Jason with an 'explanation now' face. He wanted answers.

"His injuries were worse than we originally thought, the adrenaline just masked the pain at first. The doctors put him into an induced coma to help him heal faster. He has a bruised lung that was also punctured and some cracked and broken ribs. They took the chest tube out yesterday and began weaning him off the vent. He's going to be ok though. He just needs a little time." Jason explained, deciding not to tell him about Clay's little episode and hoping Sonny wouldn't press.

Luckily for him, Sonny didn't. He just threw his head back against the pillow and started slowly shaking it in disbelief, trying to wrap his head around that fact that someone he had talked to a few days ago, who sounded like he was doing ok despite being a little banged up, was now in an induced coma and needed a machine to breathe for him. It didn't make sense to him at all.

Jason was surprised at Sonny's reaction to seeing Clay. He had fully expected him to freak out and press for answers.

Sonny wanted to. Oh boy did he want to, he was just still too weak and tired at the moment for a full blown freak out. That would have to wait till later. For now, he settled for a minor freak out. His heart rate picked up as he kept looking over at his friend, at his brother and seeing him in that condition, breathing became harder, coughing became more frequent and his tears became watery.

"We mean it Sonny. He IS going to be ok. They're actually talking about possibly taking him off the ventilator later this afternoon. They've been keeping a close eye on him and so far he's doing very well." Ray tried calming his friend down.

It didn't help. The only thing that was going to help was either him being sedated or Clay telling him he was going to be ok for himself. The second option obviously wasn't a possibility at the moment so sedation it was. Sonny wanted to fight it, but ultimately was unable to. He was tired of sleeping no matter how tired he was.

"Well that went well." Jason muttered sarcastically as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Honestly, it went a little better than I expected it to go." Ray replied.

"What are we gonna do when he wakes up next time? He's not going to relax until he knows Clay is alright." Jason said.

"The next time he wakes up Clay should be off the vent. That should help relax him a bit." Blackburn replied.

"And if he's not? If it's not successful?" Jason questioned.

"You can't think like that Jase. He's going to come off of it no problem." Ray snapped back. He was suddenly regretted telling Sonny they were talking about taking him off the vent. Sonny was going to worry even more now if he woke up and Clay was still hooked up to the breathing machine.

The reality of it was, they all knew there was a good chance that Clay wasn't ready to breathe on his own. The medics on the ship only expecting him to be intubated for about three day based on the tests they ran. The doctors at the hospital, with years more training said he would be lucky if it was only three days. They were now pushing day five. It was still 'early' enough for things to go wrong.

The worry stayed in their minds for a good portion of the day until the doctor finally walked in. "Alright, so I think I have some good news."

"Think?" Jason questioned.

"Well it should be good news as long as long as everything goes to plan." She now had the attention of everyone in the room. "Our plan is to not only take him off the vent, but to also try waking him up."

A million questions entered all their minds. "What if he can't breathe on his own?"

"What if he wakes up and freaks out?"

"How long will it take for him to wake up?"

"Which comes first, taking him off the vent or waking him up?"

"Will he be 'with it' when he wakes up or completely out of it?"

All the questions came at once. She held a hand up to stop the questions and tried her best to answer them all. "We are going to lift the come inducing mends first. We've been slowly cutting back on them as we've been weaning him from the vent. How long it takes for him to wake up, varies. It could be a matter of minutes or a matter of hours, possibly even a day. After that's done we will try to see how he breathes on his own. If his lungs seem like they can handle the job then we'll extubate him and place him on an oxygen mask and proceed with oxygen therapy. If not, then we will keep him intubated for another day or two. As far as him being 'with it' that's also hard to say. For the most part, he'll probably be pretty out of it. He'll be awake, but the drugs will still be floating around his system so I wouldn't expect too much out of him in the beginning."

That was a lot to take in. Nobody knew how to feel. They were excited that things were moving forward. That they wanted to wake him up AND take him off the vent. They were also afraid it was too early and it wasn't going to work.

As stated, the first thing the doctor did was lift the sedation. "Ok. Sedation has been lifted, now it's up to him to decide when he wants to wake up." She smiled. The next thing she did was see if Clay could properly breathe on his own.

They all stood around watching, waiting, praying that everything went smoothly.

Unfortunately, Clay failed the breathing test. They all felt defeated as the doctor looked at them and shook her head no. He was somewhat able to breathe on his own, but wasn't in taking enough oxygen to fully come off the vent.

"He's super close to being able to breathe on his own. He should wake up soon. As soon as he does we'll give him a few hours to a day to adjust, then we'll try again." She said.

"Wait a sec. He's going to wake up with that tube still down his throat?" The thought scared Jason.

"That's correct. Although he'll no longer be in a coma, he's still going to be on some pretty heavy drugs, some of which will make having a tube down his throat more bearable."

"I don't like it. What if he freaks out? Panics? Tries to pull it out?" Jason said.

"We can put him in soft restraints? They'll keep him from doing more harm to himself."

"I don't know about that. He's been restrained before by some not-so-nice people. Could freak him out more." Jason sighed as he remembered the one mission where they had to rescue Clay, who had been bound and hung from the ceiling by his wrists and tortured. He vowed to never let anyone restrain him again, as long as he had any control over it.

"They're just a precaution. If he wakes up and is fine, we'll take them off."

Jason shook his head. He wasn't going to let this lady put any type of restraint on Clay unless they absolutely had to. The rest of the team agreed. They all knew restraining someone who had been restrained and tortured before was only asking for trouble.

"No. Let him wake up. If he's uncontrollable or tries to pull it out, THEN we can talk about the soft restraints, but him waking up restrained, that's not a good idea." This time it was Blackburn who spoke up.

The nurse reluctantly agreed, but if she had to step in because her patient was freaking out, then by all means she was going to restrain him.

She left the room, knowing it could take a few hours for Clay to wake up. The rest of the team decided to take a bet over who was going to be the first to wake up to try and help pass the time. Sonny or Trent. It was pretty evenly divided. Jason, Brock and Blackburn had picked Clay to wake up first while Ray, Trent, Blackburn and Lisa had sided with Sonny. Losers each buy each of the winners a case of beer.

The clock continued ticking and ticking and ticking. Neither person showing any signs of waking up. Everyone was beginning to feel antsy waiting for someone to wake up. They could all sense it was coming soon.

It was approaching 11:00 at night which meant it was just about time for Sonny to wake up. It had also been about 6 hours since Clay was taken off the coma inducing meds. The only question was who was going to wake up first.

**Sorry for any medical inconsistencies. I tried my best but I'm sure I didn't get everything 100% accurate. As usual, I hope you all enjoyed the capter.**


	13. Chapter 13

Everyone was beginning to get impatient when suddenly, Trent noticed Clay starting to stir. They weren't big movements, but it was finally something. "Hey." Trent said nodding towards Clay. "He just moved his fingers."

At Trent's announcement, they headed over towards Clay. "Clay, can you hear me bud?" Jason said softly while gently nudging his shoulder.

Clay scrunched his face. His brain was still a complete fog, but even through the fogginess, there was no denying the pain that he felt. He felt like a bag of bricks were sitting on his chest making it hard and painful to breathe. The next thing he noticed was something down his throat blocking his airway. Something that needed to be removed.

Before anyone knew what was happening, Clay's eyes opened and his hands went right for the tube down his throat.

Luckily, Jason and Ray were close enough to grab his wrists before he could manage anything.

Clay didn't like that. He didn't understand why they were stopping him. Didn't they understand whatever was stuck in his throat was making it hard to breathe?

In Clay's fuddled mind, he had no idea he was in a hospital, no idea he was on a ventilator, no idea that that thing stuck in his throat was actually helping him breathe. He tried to remember where he was or what the last thing he did was, but nothing was coming to him.

He tried to break free of the holds on his wrists, but the harder he tried, the more he hurt.

"Easy. Relax. You're in the hospital. The tube down your throat is helping you breathe, you have to leave it in for now." Jason stated, trying to calm him down.

Clay could hear Jason, but didn't believe him. He shook his head no and continued fighting.

"Jesus Christ Clay, you have to calm down! Please, don't make us get the nurse." Jason raised his voice, but Clay continued fighting them. They all knew what would happen if they had to get the nurse because he wouldn't calm down. It was something they hoped to avoid.

"I'm getting the nurse before he hurts himself even worse." Trent exclaimed as walked out of the room.

The commotion surrounding the bed next to him pulled Sonny out of his sleep. It took him a moment to gather his surroundings, but once he did he remembered Clay was in the bed next to him and that it was him that was causing the commotion.

Sonny instantly tried to get out of his bed to try and comfort his brother, but all the wires and IV's were making that difficult. Brock and Eric quickly ran over to him and gently pushed him back down. "Stay down, we got it under control." Blackburn ordered.

"It don't look under control to me, just let me talk to him!" Sonny tried to push his way back up, but Brock and Eric each still had a hand on him.

As Sonny continued pleading for someone to let him up, Trent returned with the nurse who had sedatives in hand. She quickly administered them and watched as Clay quit fighting and drifted back asleep.

Jason and Ray were finally able to let go of Clay. As they did so, Jason ran both hands through his hair and paced around the room. He knew what this meant, and he didn't know how to feel about it.

"What's going on boss?" Sonny asked concerned. He had no idea what went on before he woke up, but judging by what he had just seen and Jason's body language, it wasn't good.

Jason looked up at Sonny before answering him. "They tried extubating him, he wasn't ready. They still wanted to wake him up. He woke up, tried to pull the tube out, and now…" Jason paused. "Now they have to put him in soft restraints for the next time he wakes up. "

Sonny momentarily closed his eyes. "You can't let them do that Jase. That's just asking for trouble." Sonny practically whispered.

"There's nothing I can do Sonny. It's already done. I did everything I could to calm him down to avoid this, but nothing was getting through to him." They both looked over at Clay who was now in a deep sleep and wearing the soft restraints.

The sight alone was hard for everyone. It was no secret that after everything all of them had seen and done, that they each had a touch of PTSD. It was something that came with the job and they each had their own triggers and ways of dealing in order to complete the missions.

Restraints were one of Clay's triggers, which made seeing him in them that much harder. They had talked to the nurses to see if there was any possible option to not have the restraints, but the only other options were to either place him back in a coma until he no longer needed the ventilator or to administer paralytics so that he couldn't move once he woke up.

The problem with placing him back in a coma was that, although his lungs seemed to be getting stronger, they didn't know how much longer he was going to need it. They really didn't want to keep him drugged longer than they had to either.

A paralytic was also something they would never even consider. The nurses said it was something they didn't do too often anymore because it often cased the patients to freak out and panic even more and that wasn't something they were willing to put Clay through.

So restraints it was. They would work through whatever outcome came from it, they just hoped it wasn't the wrong decision.

**Hi everyone. Sorry it took so long to post this chapter and that it wasn't the longest. I had a super busy week between work and vet appointments so there wasn't too much time to write, I just wanted to get a chapter up for you guys. The next update won't be till at least Monday, but I'll try to get more frequent posts after that, especially since we now have to wait an extra week. As if the 13****th**** wasn't a long enough wait, they just have to go and add an extra week to that. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the chapter and have a great weekend! **


	14. Chapter 14

The whole team started to get anxious as they drew closer to Clay waking up again. They were hoping for the best, but fully preparing for the worst.

Sonny, who was making solid improvements of his own, had managed to talk his nurse into letting him get out of the bed, convinced that he would be able to calm Clay down if he began to panic.

When the moment finally arrived and Clay began to show signs of waking up, they all gathered around his bed.

"Come on blondie, wake up, you know you wanna see my ugly mug." Sonny willed Clay.

Within minutes, Clay slowly opened his eyes.

"There ya go, easy does it." Jason spoke, trying to keep Clay calm. So far, so good.

Clay didn't make any attempts to move, just slowly scanned the room with his eyes and stopped once they landed on Sonny.

Clay stared at Sonny for what felt like forever, but in reality, was only about thirty seconds, waiting for Sonny to say something.

"You gave us quite a scare earlier, ya know?" was the first thing Sonny thought to say.

Clay just slowly nodded his head. His memory was still pretty foggy from the drugs he had been given, but he remembered earlier.

Nurses had given him medications that would help his body better accept the breathing tube, so although he still didn't like it and it wasn't very comfortable, he accepted it.

"You're gonna be ok." Sonny stated, not sure who he was trying to convince more, himself or Clay.

That was when it happened. Clay slowly attempted to reposition his arm, when he realized he couldn't move it very far. He looked down and saw the restraints. His eyes darted up. They were so wide, they would have sworn he had just seen a ghost or something. His heart rate quickly escalated as he began to panic once again.

Ray and Trent gently put their hands of his shoulders to keep him down, Jason was glaring at the nurse and Sonny was trying to get Clay's attention.

"Look at me Clay. Hey! I said look at me! Clay!" Sonny hollered. When that didn't work, he pushed Ray out of the way and grabbed hold of Clays face, forcing him to look at him. "Take it easy. They are for your own good. We can take them off as long as you promise not to pull on any tubes or wires. You think you can handle that?"

Clay nodded again, this time much quicker. At this point, he didn't care what he had to do, he just wanted the restraints off.

"Alright then. We're gonna take them off, but you need to calm down." Sonny quickly said again as they began undoing the restraints.

Once his arms were free, he quickly lifted them up in front of his face, wincing at the quick motion, and looked at his wrists.

Jason, who continued glaring at the nurse, could no longer hold back. "I told you they were a bad idea!" He said angrily.

The nurse took a step back, feeling intimidated. "I… I know. But we had to. The chances of him freaking out again were much higher than him not. You guys got lucky."

"Lucky? In case you didn't notice, he DID freak out, because of the damn restraints! Exactly like we told you he would." Jason continued yelling, with no one, not even Blackburn, even attempting to stop him yet.

The nurse didn't know how to respond. She remained silent for a few seconds, thinking of a response. "I'm sorry, but it had to be done. It was for his own good."

Jason was over it. There was obviously no getting through to this nurse. "Get out. We want a new nurse for him."

The nurse went to protest when Blackburn quickly stopped her before she could even get a word out. "You heard the man. Get out." He said in a calmer tone.

The nurse rolled her eyes and exited the room.

"Thanks for backing me up there. To be honest, I was fully expecting you to try and calm me down." Jason said to Blackburn.

"Not for something like this. These damn nurses always think they know what's best, but they're not out there with us. They don't know what we go through day in and day out, or how or why we react to certain things. He never should have been put in restraints to begin with. If they were so concerned about him pulling the vent out, they should have just kept him asleep. Instead they rushed him awake. That's bad nursing if you ask me." Blackburn was furious.

The team was a bit surprised to see him so fired up. He was usually so laid back about everything.

Clay was once again looking around the room, trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

"Don't worry about all that. They got it all under control." Sonny said, pulling Clay's attention back towards him.

Clay wanted to respond but was unable to, due to the breathing tube. He was in a whole lot pain and wasn't really sure why. The last thing he really remembered was being on the sub, having a little trouble breathing. He didn't remember there being so much pain.

Blackburn had made Sonny get back into his bed, noticing he was overdoing it on his first time out of bed, while Trent explained to Clay everything that had happened and why he was in so much pain.

Sonny fought Blackburn, not ready to leave Clay's side yet, but ultimately gave in. They helped get him all settled back in his bed. Sonny barely taking his eyes off Clay the entire time.

Once Sonny was settled and Clay was calm, everyone else was able to relax.

Things were finally starting to move into a positive direction after a nightmare mission, and they all felt the weight lifting off their shoulders.

**Sorry it took so long for this chapter. It's been a super long, stressful week and I didn't have much time to write. As always, hope you enjoyed it.**


	15. Chapter 15

The next day, exactly a week after the incident occurred, the doctors decided it was time to try extubating Clay again. They were much more hopeful this time that it would be successful.

As they prepared Clay once again for the extubation, a nurse once again suggested putting him in restraints just until it was done.

The entire team, especially Jason, was having none of it this time. "Nope, not happening. Do whatever you have to do but you are not restraining him again. We will hold him down ourselves if we have to." Jason spoke firmly.

The nurses quickly backed off and began the process, relieved that this time the extubation seemed to be successful.

Clay struggled to breathe the first few breaths he took, but it eventually evened out to a point that satisfied the nurses. They placed him on oxygen and gave him a few ice chips to help ease the soreness of his throat, something Clay was extremely grateful for.

"What… happened?" Clay rasped out, becoming a bit surprised how uncomfortable talking was at the moment. He looked around the room waiting for one of them to answer and stopped when he spotted Sonny in the hospital gown. Suddenly he remembered being thrown against rock by a wave, trapped in the torpedo tube and being on a sub, but other than that, he couldn't remember a thing as to how he ended up in the hospital.

"Do you remember that wave throwing you into the rock?" Jason asked.

Clay just nodded his head yes and looked down at his arm. It was still bandaged from wrist to elbow.

"Well you hurt yourself more than we all originally thought, the adrenaline just hid it. Once we started swimming back to the sub, that's when the first signs that something wasn't right started showing. Doctors believe when you hit the rock, you cracked a few ribs and bruised a good portion of your lung." Jason started to explain.

"Feels more… than cracked." Clay interrupted. He's had cracked ribs before. The pain he was feeling now, despite the pain meds, couldn't even compare.

"That's cause it is. Quit interrupting and let the man finish." Sonny winked. He missed being able to give Clay a hard time.

"The distance of the swim mixed with the pressure of the depth made it harder for you to breathe. We made you the first one back on the sub so they could check you out. Subs are fully prepared for that type of injury so they gave you some pain meds to try to make you comfortable until we could get back to the ship. Any of this ringing a bell?" He asked, hoping to not have to go into full details about Sonny being trapped.

Clay thought for a second and then shrugged his shoulders and nodded. "Sort of." He replied while glancing over to Sonny again.

"Do you remember Sonny being trapped?" Ray asked.

Clay nodded his head. That he definitely remembered.

"Do you remember disobeying orders and grabbing the grinder out of someone's hand?" Eric asked.

Clay shook his head no. That he definitely did not remember.

"Well you did. Master Chief Wilke had to tackle you to the ground to prevent you from turning it on and giving our location away." Jason began explaining again. "That's sort of where things spiraled out of control. We believe the impact broke two of the five cracked ribs, one of which punctured your bruised lung. They carried you out of the room and took you back to the ward room where they pretty much had you under arrest."

Clay's eyes grew. Under arrest? He didn't remember any of that, couldn't believe it was something he did.

"It took a lot of convincing, but we eventually managed to convince the chief to not press charges. We explained the situation, told him it was completely out of character you and assured him it would never happen again. He understood and ended up being pretty calm about it." Blackburn explained.

Clay stared blankly straight ahead, taking in all this information. Once processed, he looked back up and asked "How long?"

"7 days." Jason answered.

Moments later, Davis entered the room with lunch for everyone, well almost everyone. Clay's throat was so sore that he was put on a liquid diet. They almost felt bad for eating in front of him, but he assured them that he wasn't even hungry, so even if he could have eaten it, he probably wouldn't have.

They weren't even halfway done lunch before Clay fell asleep. Something the team was glad to see. They knew he was still in a lot of pain and needed all the rest he could get.

Lisa looked over at Sonny, who was sitting in a chair next to his hospital bed. "Shouldn't you be thinking about taking a nap too?" She joked.

"I don't need no nap." He huffed back.

Lisa rolled her eyes and laughed. "You know they're planning on discharging you tomorrow right?"

That was news to Sonny. He never once asked when he could go home. As long as Clay was still in the hospital, he wasn't going anywhere. "Not like it makes a difference. I ain't going anywhere until he does." He stated pointing at a sleeping Clay.

"We figured that." The entire team said at the same time. They knew there wasn't a chance in hell Sonny was walking out those hospital doors without Clay.

"Any idea how long that'll be?" Sonny asked.

"The kid just came off the ventilator this morning and you're already asking about him going home?" Trent said.

Sonny shrugged his shoulders in defense. "Well I know it's not gonna be tomorrow or anything. It was just a question."

"Ah, we're just giving you a hard time. Probably sometime next week as long as everything continues to heal properly." Jason said.

"That's about what I figured." Sonny replied, still keeping an eye on Clay.

"He's gonna get there. Don't worry." Eric said.

"Oh I know that. He always does. Poor kid just can't catch a break." Sonny sighed, truly feeling bad for Clay. It seemed like it was just one thing after another with him. "I'll tell you one thing though, once he's outta here, I'm gonna do whatever I have to to help turn that luck around. "

The team smiled. "We all will." Jason said.

**Only a few more days till our favorite show is back and I cannot freaking wait! Don't forget when it comes back it'll be on at 10 pm instead of 9! Anyway, hope youre all as excited as I am and that you also enjoyed the chapter. Also if you haven't already, be sure to vote for Seal Team in Carter Matt's tv madness competition. We're up against some tough competition this week. **


	16. Chapter 16

As the week went by, Clay finally began feeling like himself again. Or at least somewhat like he himself. He was still in a great deal of pain, but that was to be expected. He was breathing better on his own and able to get out of bed to walk around, and even though he moved slow, he was still moving. He was taking smaller doses of pain meds each day and was doing very well with his physical therapy.

When the day finally came for him to go home, he couldn't have been more excited. He was more than ready to finally get the hell out of the hospital and have some time to himself, not that he didn't appreciate the team being there for him every step of the way.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Jason asked as he walked in to the room, finding Clay staring into space and Sonny glued to the TV.

"Just can't wait to get home. You guys have been great and all, but a little time to myself sounds amazing right now." Clay said.

Sonny's eyes darted straight to the kid. "You ain't going home alone you know." He stated.

"What? What do you mean? Why not?" Clay questioned.

"We're gonna be roomies for the next few weeks until you can take care of yourself." Sonny smiled.

Clay rolled his eyes. "I can take care of myself now."

Sonny and Jason just looked at him and laughed. "You can't be serious, you really think you're in any condition to take care of yourself?" Jason asked.

"Would they let me go home if I couldn't?" Clay asked.

"They let you go home under the condition that you weren't there alone." Jason said.

Clay realized he was never going to win this battle so he gave up and accepted the thought of Sonny staying at his place. "Alright fine, you can stay at my place."

"You say that like it was ever an option. It'll be fun." Sonny grinned.

Clay was about to respond when the discharge nurse entered the room letting them know they were good to go. He slowly swung his legs off the side of the bed and slid off to a standing position. Within seconds, a second nurse entered the room with a wheelchair. "I am not getting in that thing!" Clay protested.

"Sorry hospital policy." The nurse answered.

"How come he doesn't need one then!?" Clay argued pointing at Sonny. "I know he's been discharged for a week but he hasn't left the hospital once."

"Easy there tiger, I'm perfectly capable of walking out of here on my own." Sonny answered.

"And I'm not?" Clay questioned.

"Well, you're still moving pretty slow and we would like to get out of here before the weekend, so sit your ass in the chair and let's go." Jason jumped in with a joking smile.

"I hate you guys." Clay joked, or at least half choked at the moment, as he sat in the chair.

The drive to Clays apartment was relatively short, although to Clay it felt like it took forever. He winced at every little bump they hit, which were virtually unavoidable to miss. He tried to hide the winces but both Jason and Sonny noticed. "Sorry. I'm doing the best I can to avoid them." Jason apologized.

"You're good man, just get me home." Clay almost begged as the pain became more constant again.

When they finally pulled up to his place, Clay let out a sigh of relief.

"You good?" Sonny asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. I just need a minute." Clay said.

"No problem. Take all the time you need." Jason said. They could tell Clay was trying hard to hide how much pain he was in. "You want some pain meds? I was gonna give them to you once we got you settled, but if you want, you can take them now and once they kick in, we can go up."

"I don't need them. I just need a minute." Clay grumbled.

"It ok to take some pain meds, man. You had some serious injuries there, they're gonna take some time to heel." Sonny said, hoping Clay would cave and take the meds.

"No. I'm ready. Let's head up." Clay whispered.

Getting Clay up the stairs to his apartment was a lot easier than Jason and Sonny expected it to be. To Clay, it was a lot harder. He ate the pain the best he could, hoping Jason and Sonny would back off a bit, but it took a lot out of him.

Once they got inside the apartment, he pointed to the couch and then looked up at Sonny. "Make yourself at home. You know where everything is." He then slowly made his way to his room and sat down on his bed. He felt like he had just run a full marathon.

Jason headed to the kitchen to make lunch for everyone while Sonny went in to talk to Clay.

"You know." Sonny said softly. "You don't have anything to prove by not taking the meds. We already know how strong you are."

"I just, I don't like how they make me feel." Clay admitted. "I'd rather rough it out and stay clear minded than run the risk of becoming addicted and foggy minded."

Sonny was a bit taken back by Clay's answer. "Addicted?"

Clay remained silent for a moment before he nodded his head. "Ash had a similar injury when I was still a kid. He became addicted and nearly lost his career because of it. I can't go down that road. I have to be better than him." Clay admitted.

"Shit, Clay. I had no idea, but look at me. You are not Ash Spenser. You are ten times the operator that he could ever be and you're just getting started. Take the meds. It's a low dose. All it'll do is take the edge off." Sonny said.

Clay contemplated it for a minute. He really wanted to take them because of the pain, but he still wasn't sure.

"You know we would never let you become addicted. Just take some now. The ride and walk up here took a lot out of you. Once they wear off, if you don't want anymore, I promise I won't force them on you unless I feel like you absolutely need them. Deal?"

Clay reluctantly shook his head and agreed, taking the meds from Sonny and swallowing them.

As he did so, Jason walked in with three sandwiches. "He take them?" Jason asked Sonny.

"Sure did." Sonny smirked. He had no intention of revealing what Clay had just told him unless Clay brought up the subject.

"Good. I made lunch." Jason said.

"I'm actually not that hungry. I just want to lay down for a little." Clay replied.

"You just took you're meds, at least eat half." Sonny somewhat asked, somewhat told.

Clay reluctantly grabbed the sandwich, ripped it down the middle and ate half. "Thanks. I'll eat the other half after a nap, now if you don't mind." Clay pointed to his bedroom door, signaling that it was time for Sonny and Jason to leave his room so he could rest.

"You need anything before we go?" Jason asked.

Clay shook his head no.

"Ok, well if you do, I'll be right out here, just shout for me." Sonny said.

"Thanks." Was all Clay managed to get out before sleep finally took over.

"I'm gonna head home and check on the kids. You gonna be alright here?" Jason asked.

"Oh yeah. We're all good here. Thanks Jason." Sonny said.

Jason knew the thanks was deeper than him just thanking him for helping with Clay. It was a thanks for saving his life, for never giving up, for helping Clay, for constantly fighting for the team and it's needs. "Just doing my job." Jason smiled before walking out the door and heading home.

**And that's the end of another story! Thank you everyone who followed and left reviews. They make me smile knowing you guys enjoy it. Super excited for tomorrows new episode. Just one last reminder that it'll be on at 10 instead of 9. Also thanks to everyone who voted in the poll. It's still a super close race so every vote counts!**


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